"Circling the Wagons"

This is number 23 in my upcycled blues series.

Yeah. That series. You’ve seen it before a time or two.

The block is simple and went together quickly. It was a nice change from tiny pieces. I talked about putting this top together in this post.

For the quilting I straight line quilted in the sashing and then outlined the blocks. I decided that was enough.

In the piano key border I did some meandering/stippling - kind of big, so that it wouldn’t be drastically different from the middle of the quilt.

Why? Well, you probably already know this, but if you quilt different parts of your quilt with very different densities, it won’t lie very flat. Yes. I’ve done it. (Hangs head in shame!) But only once. After that I have tried not to do it again.

I had debated just doing some more swirls as I’m kind of on a roll using those, but opted for something different instead.

I am not sure that I actually prefer this more traditionally quilted one - basically echo stitching in the sashing and outlining the design. I definitely didn’t “over quilt” this one

I think I would have liked it with swirls as well! LOL

The quilt roll:

You can tell it’s a big one since it is touching the ground as it is hanging up. Many of them skim the ground - not this one. It’s longer.

And like all of these upcycled quilts, I like to show my backings.

This one was liberally pieced as you can see.

I am almost out of blues, so unless I go and buy some more, which I’m trying not to do - as I’d like to whittle my upcycleds stash down a bit more - I’m having to use some other colors.

Since there was a good bit of purple/white in the background fabric on the front side, I decided to use a variety of white/purple prints. All upcycled, of course.

When working on this design with EQ, I played around with those cornerstone blocks. Believe it or not, when I decided to put them only in every other square, I knew that was it!

Logic had told me to put them in the OTHER cornerstone square blocks as i thought it would sort of bring those squares together with sort of a middle dot. But instead, I didn’t like it.

By putting the dark in the middle of the light, your eye goes to that spot and forms a sort of flower shape with the white and dark center. At least that’s how I see it! I thought it a lot more interesting this way.

If you want to see the whole series, you can always check it out here. I’m getting closer and closer to finishing it up. As I get each top quilted, I’m updating the patterns and putting the whole series here. This way I can examine and see if I’m repeating myself easily and also check to make sure I’m not getting too predictable!

I did update the pattern and it’s on the free patterns page.

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Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store!

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