Stonefields Blocks 26 + 27 "The Semi Circles"

Hello again, my stitchy friends.  I have two more completed appliqué blocks for my Stonefields sampler quilt project to share with you today, Blocks 26 & 27 "The Semi Circles."  I used a prepared edge starch and press method with Karen Kay Buckley's Perfect Circle templates, glue basted the shapes in place with Roxanne's Glue Baste It, and then stitched the appliqué by hand using YLI 100 wt silk thread.  The Stonefields Quilt is a beautiful antique-inspired quilt pattern written for advanced quilters, with very minimal instructions.  It was designed by Susan Smith and you can get a copy of the pattern on Etsy here (this post contains affiliate links).  You know those people who have been sewing clothing forever, who buy a new dress pattern, study the pattern pieces and then just sew up the dress based on their experience and preferences without reading the instructions at all?  If you can do that with appliqué patterns, then you'll be fine with Stonefields.  I was a little intimidated at first by the lack of instructions but now that I'm getting into it, I'm kind of enjoying the extra challenge of puzzling over each block and thinking through the pros and cons of different methods for turning that line drawing into a finished quilt block.

Completed Stonefields Blocks 26 + 27 "The Semi Circles"

My friend Gretchen who is also making this quilt (in a gorgeous blue and white color scheme) didn't care for this particular block design and she came up with a lovely embroidered block alternative that you can see on her blog here.  I thought the Semi Circles blocks were kind of cute and a nice opportunity to showcase some larger prints in my stash, including this pink and green on white floral that I inherited in a small stash of quilting fabric that belonged to my late mother-in-law.  Pink was her favorite color and I think she would be happy to see that her fabric made it into a quilt, especially as this was an intact fat quarter rather than a scrap from a completed project.  Perhaps she thought it was too pretty and couldn't bear to cut into it.  I can relate to that!  

Selecting Fabrics: Overcut Circles on an Overcut Background Square

With The Semi Circles block, there were no instructions given except for the diameters of the circles.  So I put a lot of thought into how I wanted to make mine.  My background squares were all cut oversized before I started my project and normally I would trim the block to size after stitching the appliqué, but I decided to trim the background square down to 6 1/2" first for The Semi Circles since the appliqué goes all the way to the raw edges of the blocks.  I would not want to be cutting through my completed hand stitching when I trimmed the blocks down.

I lightly pressed vertical, horizontal, and diagonal placement lines onto each block background, trimmed them to 6 1/2" square, and then set about preparing my circles.

Using Mary Ellen's Best Press + KKB Bigger Perfect Circles Heat Resistant Template

One of my Karen Kay Buckley Bigger Perfect Circles templates was the perfect size for the large semicircles on the outside of the block, and I selected the closest match I could get from my set of original (smaller) Karen Kay Buckley Perfect Circles templates for the circle in the center.  I love that these reusible templates come in such a wide selection of sizes; I can always get close enough to the size I need and they really do create perfectly round, smooth circles that are so satisfying to stitch and admire.  I think I've used them on every appliqué project since I bought them, using them over and over again.  They're so inexpensive to begin with and I would never consider making circles any other way.  Sometimes I use Niagara spray starch or sizing to press the fabric edges over the templates, but this time I used Mary Ellen's Best Press in the Lavender Fields scent because it smells better while I'm using it.  Aromatherapy!  

Running Stitch Gathering Thread is Aurifil 40 wt 2-ply (Green Spool)

For those who haven't tried these Perfect Circles templates, here's how they work.  You cut your fabric circle larger than the template by your preferred seam allowance amount, then stitch a gathering thread all the way around in about the center of the seam allowance with a regular sewing thread.  You could use any 50 wt 3-ply thread like Guterman or Mettler, but I grabbed a neutral spool of Aurifil 40 wt 2-ply (green spool) because it was close at hand.  I would not use the Aurifil 50 wt 2-ply (orange spool) for this, however -- it's not as strong and is more likely to snap when you pull the gathering thread tight around the circle template.

So after running that gathering thread, you pop the circle template in and center it on your ironing board.  Turn your iron down to medium heat to avoid warping the plastic template.  Pull the gathering string tight with the applique shape face down on the ironing board and, while holding the thread tail to keep the gathers tight, you wet your seam allowances with a paintbrush, makeup brush, or small stencil brush dipped in liquid starch and use your iron to press those seam allowances towards the center of the circle, all the way around.  Let the circle cool, then loosen your gathering thread just enough to remove the template.  The starch will hold the crisp shaped edge.  After removing the template, pull up the loosened gathers again carefully so your circle flattens out again, and hit it once more with your iron.  And then you have a perfectly round, smooth circle with all the edges turned under, ready to stitch to your project.

Except for this project, I only needed part of each of the big circles.  I laid my circles down one at a time over my pattern sheet for the Semi Circles block, lined up my acrylic ruler with the 1/4" marking centered on the pattern line indicating the finished size of my block, and drew a line with my Bohin mechanical chalk pencil (in blue below) indicating where to trim my circle so it would fit my block with a 1/4" extending into the seam allowance.  Then I shifted my circle off the pattern sheet onto my cutting mat and used the ruler with my rotary cutter to slice off the excess.  

Chalk Line Indicates Where to Trim for Quarter Inch Seam Allowance

Since the pattern lines are too faint to see with my light box, I positioned my shapes on this block using the guidelines I'd pressed into the block background and by measuring the distance from the semicircles to the block corners.  I pinned all five shapes with my Karen Kay Buckley Perfect Pins first, in case I needed to fine tune the positioning, and then I peeled back the edges to put micro dots of Roxanne's Glue Baste It along the seam allowances with the pins still in place to ensure nothing shifted.  Pins came out once the seam allowances had all been glued and then I hit the block with my iron to dry the glue for a secure temporary hold during hand stitching. 

Shapes Pinned First, Then Glue Basted Prior to Hand Stitching

You could totally skip the glue if you prefer -- in that case, you'd want to pin with shorter appliqué or sequin pins placed end-to-end (but not overlapping), parallel to and just inside the seam allowance, all the way around each appliqué shape.  I prefer the glue basting because it allows me to position all of the appliqué shapes on my block at once without having my thread constantly getting caught up on the pins while stitching.  The only downside to Roxanne's Glue Baste It is that the long, skinny metal nozzle that enables me to apply the liquid glue in teeny, tiny dots clogs up very quickly every time I use it and it's annoying to clean.  For that reason, I decided to prep both of these blocks up to the glue stage so I could do all the gluing in one go before having to clean the glue tip.

Below, the shapes on the left block are trimmed to size, positioned properly, and temporarily secured with pins while I worked on the shapes for the second block on the right.  I had fun choosing which sections of that larger scale Tilda print to center in my semicircles.  I love my little pink birdies!

Block 26 Trimmed + Ready for Glue Basting, Block 27 In Progress

...Now both blocks have been trimmed, positioned and pinned for glue basting:

Preliminary Pinning, Ready to Glue Baste + Hand Stitch

Hours and hours later, after a few evenings in front of the television, the appliqué was completed.  My appliqué hand stitching is pretty darned invisible, stitched with YLI 100 wt silk thread and a size 12 Bohin Applique needle.  

Semi Circles Block, Hand Stitching Completed!

Here's what the back of my block looked like right after stitching.  If you zoom in, you will see that my hand applique stitch resembles a really short machine straight stitch on the back, with a barely perceptible slant to the stitching because I'm only grabbing 2 threads of the fabric with each stitch on the right side, then reinserting my needle straight down into my background fabric.  The super-skinny silk thread just sinks down in between the yarns of my appliqué fabric like it's melted into the weave.  I am not telling you this because I think my way is the only right way -- it takes a long time to do it my way and some quilters prefer to finish their quilts before they die.  I am telling you how I stitch my applique because in a minute, when I show you what I did next, some of you are going to be clutching your pearls and telling me that my hand stitching won't hold and all my applique is going to fall off my quilt.  NOT gonna happen, folks, because my neurotic perfectionist hand stitching is just as strong if not stronger than machine stitching.  And that gives me options and possibilities...

Back of Block View of Rebecca's Hand Stitched Appliqué

...Mwahahaha!  With my trusty duck billed appliqué scissors, I have trimmed away my background fabric behind those large semicircles!  Now the block looks like it was accomplished by curved piecing instead of applique and I don't have to worry about additional bulk or shifting of that unnecessary background fabric when the time comes to sew this block into the quilt top.

Excess Background Fabric Trimmed Away After Stitching

I did the same thing with my other Semi Circles block:

Another Semi Circles Block, Hand Stitching Completed

I trimmed away the backing on this block, too:

Excess Backing Fabric Trimmed Away

One important consideration here: Knowing that I intended to cut away the background fabric from these circles from the very beginning, I was intentional about positioning those circles on the block so that I would have straight grain along the cut edge for stability.  If I'd just positioned them randomly and then trimmed them with a bias edge, it would not have been the end of the world but I would have had to be much more careful in handling the block from now through the construction of the quilt top to prevent bias circle edges from stretching.  

Careful Planning Ensured Straight Grain on Block Edges

And now here we are, admiring Blocks 1-27 of my Stonefields sampler, hanging out on my design wall and making me happy whenever I look at them:

Stonefields Blocks 1-27 Completed

I'm still thinking about my plan of attack for the next two blocks, "Paper Flowers," which you can see Gretchen's lovely versions of here.  My friend Chris is also making Stonefields but I didn't see the Paper Flowers blocks in her photo here the last time she posted about this project.  Chris is making a smaller version of Stonefields and is working through the pattern out of order, so I'm not sure whether she opted to omit Paper Flowers or just hasn't gotten to it yet.  What about YOU?  Anyone else out there working on Stonefields right now, or have already finished yours?  I'd love to see your version!  Let me know where to find you in the comments!

I've been working on those EPP (English Paper Piecing) hexagon rosettes for my outer border as I go along, and they are accumulating up at the top of my design wall.  I did end up removing all of the templates after starching and pressing the rosettes nice and flat, and they are sticking to the design wall much better now:

27 Quilt Blocks + 35 Hexie Rosettes

So, that's what I've been up to!  No fancy plans for the Memorial Day weekend, either, just enjoying a respite from the stress of renovating.  I do have painters working in my house today even though it's Saturday and a holiday weekend, so progress is still moving along...  The major challenges we've been having with the renovation are due to internal communications failures between the builder's in-house design team and their build team and trades -- I signed off on all of these lovely designs, paid them a small fortune, waited patiently for months, and now the things showing up in my house are substantially different (in disappointing ways) from the designs I signed off on.  We're having a meeting about this on Tuesday morning and hopefully the latest snafu can be resolved without incurring yet another significant delay.  I know the house will be amazing when it's finally finished, but right now it's A LOT, if you know what I mean!

I'll be turning my attention to the next two Stonefields applique blocks this week and would also like to prep some more hexies for EPP.  I think I need some more fussy cut hexies, don't you?  Happy weekend and happy stitching!

I'm linking up with some of my favorite linky parties:

MONDAY

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts  

Monday Musings at Songbird Designs  

TUESDAY

To-Do Tuesday at Quilt Schmilt  

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

FRIDAY

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Off the Wall Friday at Nina Marie Sayre

Beauty Pageant at From Bolt to Beauty

 TGIFF Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday, rotates, schedule found here: TGIF Friday

SUNDAY

Frédérique at Quilting Patchwork Appliqué

Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts

Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework