Prep Work on Quarter Circles Round #2

I expected this part of the Quarter Circles Round #2 project to go quickly, but alas, I was very mistaken. The circles were previously hand appliqued and then cut apart, so it was important to reinforce the outside edge of each seam.

Quarter Circles Round #2

At first I tried to backstitch at the seams while I was sewing the skinny sashing on, but then I realized that when I added the next quarter circle, I always sewed with the sashing on top. That made it difficult to to backstitch at the precise spot that needed reinforcement. Efficiency has not exactly been a by-word around here this week.

All stacked up...

But finally, I got it all reinforced, sewn together and in a lovely little stack. Lots of stray threads though. Wowsers, was I picking them off of me forever! My husband will probably complain that he's finding them everywhere, even in his just washed clothing, as I was running to answer the phone and doing laundry etc. while I was trying to sew.

It was an easy process to iron them flat and then cut away the protruding ends of the sashing. The fabric/color combination is still making me very, very happy which is a lot of fun. I often wonder why certain combinations are so much more lovable than others and why there isn't an obvious formula for making it happen every time!

Trimming off the excess....

I doubt that you can see from these pictures, but the circles do not come out all 'even steven' on these blocks. I deliberately cut out the circles less than perfectly round before the initial stitching, hoping I would end up with some 'wonk'. Some blocks have more wonkiness than others which {I confess} at first I found a bit alarming and then, after that initial shock of  'did I do that?', very charming. It reminds me of that wonderfully antique make-do look that is actually quite difficult to reproduce in our current era of abundance.

Ready for the hand applique

I also wanted to link up my latest finish with Julie's Binding Blitz! More details about this quilt over here. I'm kind of a slow poke about getting to a true-blue finish so I didn't think to wait for Julie's linky party!

Imagine a Quilt

Not sure when I will actually do the applique for the Quarter Circles, but it's nice to know they are all prepped and ready to go. It's always good to have some smaller pieces of hand work sitting around waiting for an opportune moment. Those larger pieces are just plain awkward to work on in a car or sitting on the bleachers etc.....