Carousel Quilt - Work in Progress Part 2

How quickly time flies! It has been more than four months since my last Carousel Quilt update (see blog post here), and during that time the hand pieced circle blocks were never far from my sight. For four months these blocks moved from my sewing machine table back to my cutting table, as was required to make room for the other quilts I have worked on during that time. And with each move the task of sewing these circle blocks together became more and more daunting!

Then one evening last week I decided that the time had finally come to make a start by cutting the background fabric pieces. This only took a half hour or so, and I thought it wise to push on while things were going well. I hand stitched just one seam by hand before it crossed my mind that I could just as easily piece the remainder of the quilt top together by machine.

Three hours later and some time spent working out the best way to go about sewing the background fabric around the already complete circle blocks, the quilt top was done! I was pretty pleased with myself for ticking this task of my to-do list. As usual no pins were used when sewing these curves. 

QUILT STATS

Carousel Quilt

A Pattern by Sandra Boyle.

Quilt top as pictured measures 53 inches x 53 inches.

Hand pieced and machine pieced.

In excess of 550 patchwork pieces.
Background fabric is a floral print  from the 30's Collection
by Atsuko Matsuyama for Yuwa Fabrics.

The quilt pattern includes instructions for adding several borders however I am at this stage undecided if I want to add borders to my quilt top. Right now I am pleased to have a quilt top that I know will progress to become a finished quilt, rather than the 16 circle blocks that sat idle for too long. 

I am also completely at ease with the fact that I spent a very significant amount of time hand piecing the circle blocks only to then finish the quilt top by machine in a matter of hours. I loved hand piecing the arcs, but piecing the remainder of the quilt by hand was just not going to happen. Whatever it takes, right?

I love a good scrap buster quilt and many of the fabric wedges used in the arcs were pulled from my scrap bin, and represent fond fabric memories; memories of a time, place, and another quilt. This quilt is going to be a keeper!

As always, thank you for stopping by,
Rita

RELEVANT LINKS:
Carousel Quilt - Work in Progress - Part 1
Carousel Quilt - The Finished Quilt - Part 3
Sewing Curves without Pins ~ Tutorial
More RPQ Slow Sewing Quilts:
The Daisy Chain Quilt
The Wagon Wheel Quilt 

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