Monday, September 19, 2011

News Flash! Bull's Eye Done at Last!


53" x 69"
I promised to share my latest completed project and here it is!

Started in 2002 with a small group of quilting friends, it involved sewing three sizes of raw-edged circles onto a background square, making enough blocks for everyone in the group. After sharing them with each other they were cut into quarters and sewn back together again. I bet some of you have made the same pattern!

I sewed the blocks together right away - but didn't assemble and add borders until 2009. Don't ask!
I knew I wasn't going to hand quilt it and not being confident about my machine quilting it got pushed to the bottom of my very long UFO list.

I finally decided it was time to 'JUST DO IT'.
Does that Nike slogan ever motivate you?


First I did a wavy stitch in a grid along the seamlines using the walking foot on my Bernina 1230....
(Stitch # 3 set at 2.5 and 2.5)

It's a zig-zag in which three stitches are taken for each zig so when you manipulate the stitch length and width you can achieve this nice wave. You can play with the setting to get it more or less waved.


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Then I did free motion wavy lines within the cirles and one row around the whole circle in the background.
I must say, by the time I finished I had really improved my skills in free-motion quilting.









The back is a pieced strippy making reversible quilt!


Is than an old Jinny Beyer print? :)

I used a large plaid on the bias for the binding.

Finally..... the fun stage!!
I popped it into the washing machine on a brief cycle of low agitation, spun and drained and into the dryer to shrink a bit and fluff out those raw edges. That's the whole appeal of it to me - the scrappy casual fluff! A quick 'trim' of the ravels and voila...ready for use in the family room.
It feels so good to have it done and I really like how it turned out. Why did I wait so long?

Have you finished a nagging UFO lately?

6 comments:

  1. Nope--mine are still nagging. : )
    My daughter made a quilt like this with some friends to give to another friend. They are fun.

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  2. I'm the non-quilter and I don't get this at all. Is this a historic thing? Would all the pioneer women sit around and spend time putting circles together, cutting them apart, and putting them back together?? Is this some 21st century academic exercise. But it does look cool.

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  3. I would have never guessed that I would like a raw edge project....you have changed my mind!...I love it

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  4. Well, I never saw a Bull's Eye quilt I did not like. Yours is really wonderful.
    I have been collectig different cream background fabrics to make mine and also purchased a book featuring this pattern on front cover.
    Thank you for sharing ;)

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  5. Yes! That is a Jinny Beyer fabric on the back/on the Strippy side. I still have several pieces from the 80s! I love two-sided quilts, especially the Strippy for some reason. Thanks for putting the link to yoru blog on QHL.

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