Josh’s Circles in a 9 Patch Block
Josh here, and today we’re going to be quilting a whole lot of circles.
I actually felt pretty good about this block. The circles were mostly uniform, save for the half circles along the edges, but they turned out to be easier than the full circles. I have to say this block ultimately was pretty fun.
Just in case you’d like to make your free motion quilting life easier click here to find the cheater cloth fabric I’m using for my blocks which will save time piecing and marking all the blocks.
I ended up with a thread break as I stitched a circle in the corner. What happened was I was moving the block too slowly and running the machine too fast. In the future I’ll adjust the speed of the machine to run a little slower, or speed up the movement of my hands, so hopefully this won’t happen again.
I also seem to have forgotten to quilt along a few lines in this design. Lot of circles and curves in this block and in an attempt to minimize travel stitching a few just got away from me.
So I didn’t complete all the circles. Turns out Leah really liked it. She said it’s nice that not all of them are stitched just right and thought the imperfection gave the block a nice beginner touch.
Until next week, let’s go quilt,
Josh
WOW, Josh! You are fun, and you do a very great job! Thanks for sharing everything that happens to you. I learn it! Have a nice day!
So glad you showed what to do when the thread breaks. I had that happen and I figured you did what you showed on the video, but I was glad to see you fixed it the same way. 🙂
I hadn't checked in for quite a while – am so glad I did. Thank you so much, both of you, for sharing your wonderful journey with us. You are generous and make free motion quilting accessible to even beginners. You are both generous. Thank you!
josh, thank you so much for sharing videos on how you do your blocks Josh. It helps enormously 🙂
Is there a trip to keeping the stitches on the back even? Do you have a stitch regulator? I have just begun to experiment with free motion quilting so any tips you give would be great!!!
Hi Large Family – Nope, I don't use a stitch regulator. Keep in mind this is a lot like playing the piano – you will have to go through a bit of practice in order for everything to balance out and work right. Definitely check out the video on free motion quilting tips for more info!
Thanks again for the clear video lesson. In a coming block could you please show the way you tie knot and hide threads when the stitches are a little larger and able to be picked out? I watched one of your earlier videos (that I can't find now) and have just been taking the thread and hiding with the cheater needle – but I missed the part about tying a knot. Haven't washed anything yet – am hoping the inch or so that I tucked each of the thread pieces under the fabric will be enough… I guess should have brought the thread so it's at the same side of the fabric but I didn't….