Circle Swap on About.com

The pattern is now available for sale on my patterns page. Click on the cover above to go there.

My name is Christine Thresh and I hosted the Circle Swap in March of 2007.

rainbow circle We swapped circles, not blocks. The circles were swapped in sets of three (3). This was a quick swap. All circles were due by April 30, 2007. It was a centralized swap.

circle of flowers Our swap used my copyrighted Going Around in Circles Again pattern.

vegetable circle The finished circles are 15 inches in diameter. The circles are paper pieced. A Master Foundation is included with the instructions. The swappers made many copies of the foundation so they had plenty to work with. Participants in the swap were members of the About.Com quilting forum.

All fabric was pre-washed 100% good quality cotton.

I find it fun to make circles with themes. I've made a rainbow circle, a flower circle, a black and white circle, a plaid circle, a spots and dots circle, and a vegetable circle. The circle at the top of the page is made of Asian fabrics. When these circles are put together they give a scrappy look. For this swap I encouraged theme circles.

As an alternative, some swappers opted for the "Green Circle Group" where ALL the circles were be made of green fabrics. The Green Group's circles were exchanged within the Green group..
(IBQLTR2) Bev's circle

Bev (IBQLTR2) made our first swap circle!

She sent me this photo by e-mail on March 21, 2007. I am impressed. Thanks Bev.
Carolyn's first circle

ArizonaCarolyn made her first circle.

It is made from batiks. She had never paper pieced before.

(LindaHoo) Linda made some circles and Carolyn took photos.

(sherryssmith) Sherry made three circle for the swap.

They look good interlocked.

Grace (GraceB1) made two sets of circles and posted them on the Circle Swap thread.

All the different circles are fun to see. Grace's blue circles

Circles from the swap spread out on muslin to see what a scrappy quilt might look like.

Thinking About Background Fabrics

I love this! It brings to mind the bamboo forests of China. To show how the circles can be placed on striped fabric (no curved piecing, no "melons" or "footballs") I chose this marvelous fabric. It is Robert Kaufman's "Portraits of the Wild" screen print D# 4235.

Lift, Cut, Tuck

When I hand applique the circles to the background fabric I stitch the circle right up to a crossover place, and then I lift the upper piece and cut out the under-circle fabric, leaving a 1/4 inch seam allowance tucked under the upper piece. I continue appliqueing until the next crossover. Lift, cut, tuck and I'm on my way again.

Machine Applique

My dear daughter-in law, Toni, machine appliqued some circles for a wall hanging. Here is a close-up of her stitching. She used invisible thread on the machine and regular cotton thread in the bobbin. She used a very small zig zag stitch (or perhaps it was a hem sitch). Toni's invisible applique by machine

Write to me christine@winnowing.com for more information.

Created: 3/14/2007 Updated: 11/7/2007