Thursday, April 30, 2009

New Book!!!

I think I have finally recovered from getting this book here. You might think that it gets easier with each one, but it doesn't. Yes, I know the process, but there is no circumventing the process. But no matter -- it's here!




The new book is called Simply Charming Circles. All the quilts are made with 5" charm squares. (Of course, 12 charm squares can be cut from a fat quarter, so all the quilts are fat quarter friendly too!) I have always been a little intimidated by circles, so all of these designs are super simple. I use two easy techniques for the circles, raw edge applique and fusible machine applique. If you really like another technique, you can always substitute your own technique in place of mine.




My current favorite is the Charming Bull's Eye quilt. Ages ago I started a bulls eye quilt. I got all the squares cut and then it got put away. I still know where it is. Like I said, circles intimidated me. I couldn't bear the thought of cutting out all those circles with scissors and then sewing around the entire circle before I could do the fun part of cutting them apart and sewing them back together. So why is my favorite in this book the bull's eye? Because I do it differently!




First, there are rulers so I didn't have to use scissors, I could use my small rotary cutter to cut 4 pieces at a time. Second, I used fat quarters and charm squares to create a quarter of the block. There was no need to sew on the entire circle. You just sew a quarter circle at a time, and that is such a simple curve to sew that pinning is optional. So now I have a bull's eye quilt that I love without sewing one circle. Yeah for me!




Here is the picture of the bull's eye quilt.


Ask for this book at your local quilt shop or order it from my website:

4 comments:

The Wheelers said...

like i said, i have a bin full of projects to finish. then i want to try out some of the quilts in this book. thanks for making circles not so intimidating!

April M. said...

Yeah, you're finished! The book looks great! I'm with you with the whole circle thing too.

SandyQuilts said...

I love your bullseye quilt. I'll be looking for your book. thanks.

Em said...

WOW! I'm so glad we're sharing a booth because I can't wait to see this book! It looks like so much fun!