My completed colour wheel quilt top, 56x56"
I'm delighted to share my completed colour wheel quilt top today! It makes me very happy to see this quilt coming together after having it on my WIP list for over two years. I started collecting fabrics for this quilt in March 2010 and it took me quite a while to decide on all of the fifty-two prints that I eventually used.
My first pass through my stash, auditioning fabrics for the colour wheel. March 2010
I received fabric from many sources: my own stash, a Sew, Mama, Sew! swap, Flickr quilting bee friends, and a private swap with Quilting Barbie who was working on her own colour wheel quilt. After all of that, I still had to go out and search for more fabric, so I bought a few fat quarters here and there. This pattern, from Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson, really doesn't take much fabric for each wedge, a 4x12" piece will do.
After I had all the wedges cut, I let this beautiful project sit on my shelf for over a year. Recently, I decided to work on it again and sewed up the four arcs of coloured wedges. To my dismay, each wedge finished at more than ninety degrees, meaning the finished quilt top would either have unsightly bubbles or some noticeably narrow wedges. Oh noes!
Super-strong, double-sewed seams!
After having Felicity over to give some helpful advice, I took a deep breath, and painstakingly resewed all of the seams so they were one or two millimetres wider. The impact of this small change over twelve seams fixed the problem and everything came together beautifully! I'm so glad I took the time to fix it.
When it came time to sew the curved seams, I used tons of pins and it all went smoothly!
To attach the quadrants together, I used a little trick. I sewed the essential area where the white fabric met the coloured arc first and if that wasn't perfect, I ripped it out and tried again. Once it was just as I liked it, I pinned and sewed the entire seam. Is this a technique you've heard of? I doubt that I made this up, but it just seemed like a good way to ensure my key points matched. I sure didn't want to be ripping out a fifty-six inch seam multiple times!
The last seam after I'd sewed the five key points. After it was fixed in place, I just sewed the entire seam one more time.
Thanks to everyone who has helped me with this quilt so far! Now to keep up the motivation and get it basted and quilted!
I'm linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and The Needle and Thread Network.
WOW, that is just stunning Holly. You never would guess that it's 56" by looking at the photo. But way to go, I just love it.
ReplyDeleteThat is gorgeous, and great idea on stitching the key parts! :)
ReplyDelete-Amanda-
Great job on the colour wheel. it turned out beautifully!
ReplyDeleteYour fabric choices are amazing and the result is incredible. I've eyed the exact same pattern and thought it looked too hard for me! Your technique of sewing the crucial point first seems genius to me, a novice quilter. Great job! I'm jealous!
ReplyDeleteWow! Just stunning! I have been wanting to make one of these, yours is just gorgeous!
ReplyDeletethis will be beautiful when finished! And that is an excellent tip to only sew where the seams intersect - I've been sewing for a few decades now and just never thought of doing that! I will definately keep it in mind. thanks!
ReplyDeleteI just love your Color Wheel! Lots of work, and so worth it!
ReplyDeleteSimply beautiful!!
ReplyDeleteWow!! I love this...anxious to see it quilted...will be very lovely.
ReplyDeleteJust gorgeous!! The colors are amazing!
ReplyDeleteIt turned out beautifully...great job!!
ReplyDeleteIt is lovely! This is such a classic pattern, and I love how you did it without all the tiny wedges coming together in the centre. Great trick about sewing the crucial section together before stitching the entire seam - I will try that in the future, I haven't seen it before. I am looking forward to seeing the finished quilt!
ReplyDeleteThis is amazing. I love it. Maybe in two years I'll have enough variety of fabrics to make one of my own!
ReplyDeleteYour colour wheel is wonderful! I think I will pull out the one I made many years ago...and fix it up!
ReplyDeleteI never tire of seeing these. Yours turned out great!
ReplyDeleteIt is fabulous, Holly! I've not heard of that "key areas" technique but I think it's brilliant!
ReplyDeleteJust lovely. And no, I think you gave an original and excellent idea to just sew the critical part. Brilliant. You have done a very good job and so worth it to redo that small bit!
ReplyDeleteJust so funny that we posted on the same type of quilt today! Yours is beautiful and all the seams line up so nicely, I ran out of patience. Doesn't this quilt just make you so happy?
ReplyDeleteBeautiful color wheel and thanks for the tip. That will come in handy.
ReplyDeleteI love this quilt Holly - I am so glad that it is back in progress, it really deserves to be finished. A gorgeous bright rainbow quilt will definitely brighten up our winter!
ReplyDeleteYour quilt top looks great! Re. your final tip, I do more or less the same thing when I'm piecing and really want seams to match. I sew a few stitches where seams and points come together, make certain that the piecing looks good, rip out and try again as needed, and then do the entire seam. I also sort of improvised the method myself when I started quilting, but I'm surely not the first to have done so either. For me, it's an essential piecing technique!
ReplyDeleteWow, your color wheel is amazing. Thanks for linking up with WIP Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteGreat job Holly....it will look even more beautiful when finished.
ReplyDeleteSo impressive! I want one...
ReplyDeleteVery nice quilt top, can't wait to see how you'll quilt it. As for the just-stitch-the-critical-points technique, I read about it somewhere and use it on difficult projects, but doubt I would have come up with it on my own.....
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely stunning Holly! And I live your tip of sewing the bits that have to match first. I'm definitely remembering that one!
ReplyDeleteOooh! Loooove the Colour Wheel!!!
ReplyDeleteCarol
i'm so glad that you're finishing this, it looks spectacular! i do the same key points, but i usually do them with a slightly larger stitch length that they they're easier to rip out later if i want to press my seams open. basically, i baste it. i see that jessica does it too, i guess vmqg folks are just smart! ;)
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