I’m making steady progress on my Down the Rabbit Hole quilt now, it’s a quilt-a-long by Sarah Fielke and I’ve got a couple of months behind, but I’m catching up!
Last week I stitched the bias binding stems on, so my job this week was to make 24 sets of big and little circles. Sarah has a nifty way of doing this using tinfoil to wrap the fabric shape around the template and then pressing. It works a treat! I’ve been very impressed with this QAL so far, Sarah produces a video of all the processes we need to do and talks us through it, as well as having written instructions. It makes so much more sense when you actually see it done.
The small circles are stitched onto the big ones first. I did mine off centre to create a more interesting look (as recommended by Sarah) I used about ten different fabrics for these, most of them I just used twice, but I particularly loved the bee one, so that one appears about six times! Some of the circles are better than others, but it is a learning curve, hopefully by the time I get to the outer border they will be much improved.
For the outer circles I managed to find 24 different fabrics…yes it surprised me too! I’ve picked up a few fat quarters and I did start with a layer cake, even so I didn’t think I had quite that many purples and greens. I laid them out on the square to try and space the colours. I used a trick I’ve seen mentioned a few times on the quilting facebook pages, I took a photo and photoshopped it to black and white. It does help to see how the tonal values of fabrics are spaced, I changed a couple round and then glued them in place with a tiny dab of Roxanne fabric glue. I’ve not used this before but it certainly hold them firmly and apparently washes out at the end. I’ve just started stitching them on.
Once I’ve stitched them all on I’ve got the scary bit of cutting away the fabric behind the big circles. Sarah recommends it to reduce bulk, otherwise you can end up with quite a few layers which can then make quilting more difficult. Half of me thinks it sounds too scary and I’ll just have a bulky quilt, but I think I’ll follow her instructions, after all I’m doing this quilt to learn!
I’m linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday, why not follow the link and see what hand sewing everyone else has been doing.
thecraftycreek 
It is such a great feeling when you feel like you are finally making real progress on a project! These are some of my favorite colors so I know I will love this quilt!
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I love that effect! I can understand your nervousness, I felt like that last night when decreasing and following a lace pattern as I was not convinced it would work!
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Love your Down the Rabbit Hole! I’m doing this one, too. I’m also a bit behind, I’m in the process of sewing down my leaves. I think I’m a bit nervous of doing the houses!
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I think I’m more nervous about the leaves than the houses, they look so tiny!
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This is gorgeous. LOVE the colors.
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You are definitely Down the Rabbit Hole now! It looks wonderful! Love the colours and the bees too. I will continue watching your progress each week.
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This is so pretty. I know I would have a problem with the off-center circles, but it really does add interest to the quilt.
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Even if I’d tried to centre them, some would have ended ever so slightly off, and that would give me even more of a problem, I know my limitations 🙂
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I didn’t know you were making a rabbit hole quilt… it’s awesome so far!
I know that scary feeling of cutting away the fabric underneath an applique!
Interesting about the circle making technique… I’ll have to look that up.
Thanks for linking up to Slow Sunday Stitching!
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Love your Down the Rabbit Hole! I too am learning new things as I do this amazing quilt. Looking forward to seeing your beautiful version come to life.
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It’s looking great and it sounds like you are learning a lot too!
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Very pretty
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What a good idea taking a black and white picture. It certainly shows the colour values. Great project!
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I love this quilt. I wanted to join in too but I’m in the middle of another big project so I had to say no. The colors your have chosen for the center of this quilt are very lovely.
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I love the colours you’re using. I understand your fear about cutting away the fabric behind – I’m not doing it on my Hatbox blocks but it’s going to be a wall hanging and I’m going to QAYG so I think I’ll get away with it.
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Oh yes, that pressing technique with the tin foil is a trick worth knowing, isn’t it? Looking good so far:)
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