Free wheelin’ has been the vibe around here lately. I’ve been out of the quilt room more than in it, spending time on road trips, reading a book, cleaning my fridge (it needed it), and other distractions that seem to load up my day. While I haven’t been in the sewing room much, I have managed to join in on a sew along and finish the quilt top, all without writing one post about it!
I joined in with Denyse Schmidt’s Free Wheelin’ Single Girl SAL which started on October 1st. My friend Tracie encouraged me to join in with her, and it’s always fun to quilt with a friend, right? It has been a fun quilt to sew, and it is easier than it looks. The pace of the SAL was relaxed. I didn’t feel like I needed to rush to keep up. Sewing up the arcs was a creative, messy process, but you know I enjoy making a mess!
I’ve been trying to use fabrics on hand lately, and I will admit that frustrated me a bit while trying to come up with a background fabric for this quilt. The only yardage I had enough of was my old faithful Grunge in Faded Denim. I auditioned quite a few other fabrics for the background, but nothing was working. So I just gave up and settled with the Grunge. In the end, I like the look of the quilt, so all is well.
If you’ve been following me awhile, you’ll know that I enjoy sewing improv circles, like this favorite quilt. While this quilt didn’t use improv circles, piecing the arcs was a bit similar. The arcs went together pretty quickly for my crib size quilt. Once the arcs were sewn, then the outer and inner pieces were added.
The four units become a block with a squircle (not quite a square, not quite a circle). The pattern is pretty forgiving, and the arcs matched up well. I opted to pin my arcs to the outer and inner units rather than glue baste. It was a bit fussy but the pieces went together well.
While Denyse offers acrylic templates for the design, she also had the option of using the paper templates, which is what I chose to do. I tried something a bit different for using the outer and inner units. I had some very stiff fusible stabilizer (Pellon 71F), so I decided to try fusing the paper to the Pellon to make a stiff template that was easier to cut around. It worked well. I measured the template before I fused it, so I could check to see if the heat of the iron shrunk the paper (it didn’t). I had to be careful not to cut into the Pellon while cutting the curved segments of the units, but I found it easier to cut around than just the paper.
Before I knew it, I had the top done and waiting for borders. It waited for days on my design wall. I find sewing on borders very boring, so I ignored it (suddenly that fridge really needed to be cleaned). Yesterday I finally had a little chat with myself and got the borders added.
The top is 50 inches square. Now I need to find a backing fabric and then decide if I’m going to quilt this on my own, or take it to Connie and let her have fun.
The Free Wheelin’ Single Girl quilt pattern is fun to see in a variety of colors. You can see all the variety if you are on Instagram by following the hashtag #FWSGSAL25. While you are there, take a peek at Tracie’s Free Wheelin’ quilt on her feed at @joyfully_tracie. She choose some really pretty fabrics for her quilt.
After giving my machine a good clean, new needle, etc. I’m ready to do some more free wheelin’ in my quilt room. What about you? Free wheelin’ or nose to the needle? Let me know!
Wendy
It turned out very cute. I like the grunge. It has a pleasantly casual feel to it.
Oh Wendy, I have fallen in love with you this quilt. It is stunning and the background is perfect for those bright rings.
Nice to know you have been out exploring.
I know that thing about having to have a good chat with oneself when it comes to boring borders and the bind of stitching bindings
Oops, with your quilt
The denim-look background adds a cozy feeling!
That turned out to be a very pretty quilt with those scrappy squircles – they look fantastic with the denim Grunge! Haha on free wheelin’ – that’s about all we do nowadays. We will do some shopping and end up at Chili’s this afternoon – can’t wait!
Nose to the needle for me! You are just so good at improv and I love seeing what you come up with as you never disappoint!!
How fun to have a quilt that features so many cool fabrics. I imagine some are scraps from favorite projects. I’m not so free wheeling these days. Just started sewing some FPP Christmas ornaments.
Ha, I’m sure no great art was ever made without a great mess!
I too think the background is just perfect for making those wheels pop! (I mean, not like flat-tire pop, but you know, stand out!). Verrah cute!
I really like your idea to put Pellon 71F on the back of the paper templates; smart! Your quilt top looks great, and I hear you about getting distracted by a multitude of other life things. I’ve been stuck there since last week myself. Maybe this afternoon I can get back to my sewing machine for a bit. 50″ square is a lovely size for a quilt, and I look forward to seeing how it finishes up.
That is a fun one, Wendy! I like the pretty, bright scraps of the “wheels” with that lovely background. I’m glad you said everything sewed together well because to me this looks very challenging! You are a master at curved piecing! I’ll have to go check out the other quilts on the Instagram feed.
I like your circles – this really turned out good.
I really like this quilt top. The idea of fusing your paper pattern to the stabilizer is great! I empathize with trying to find the perfect background in the stash. I’m desperately trying not to buy fabric and use what I have. But all those new fabrics that keep coming out are so tempting. Now for aversion…cleaning the fridge is NOT at the top of my list! But reading a good book is. Thanks for sharing this quilt with us.
A very fun finish. Fridge cleaning does reach that point doesn’t it? Hope you’ve got all your chores lined out and you can play with something new in the sewing room
I love the pic with piles of scrap fabrics. I don’t feel so alone now. Your grunge works well. If you make another Free Wheel quilt, grunge would work well in any color.
Happiest of days sewing.
This looks great. That background goes really well with your fabrics. Congrats on this lovely finish 🙂
Echo quilting inside those circles (use your walking foot as a guide). Cute quilt!
Oh gosh, cleaning the fridge over sewing borders? That’s bad! LOL! It’s a really cool looking quilt.
That‘s new for me, that you dont like borders and bindings. It will be interesting what the result from your talk with yourself is. Ans sure, Conny will do a super quilting. Ro stabilze a paper pattern is a good idea. I try it often with freezer paper. Love to find the link to your picnic quilt from 2021. love this crwative zone on your table with all these colours! Its so good snd healing to work with sraps.
As always the grunge did a very good job!
Sometimes our real live with cleaning, laundry, (work…), is first. And you can go back to sewing room satisfied and with a good feeling, that the housekeeping jobs are done. Guess Wilbs did not help, to cold for cats that area… lol
Thanks for sharing your tips, like you own template. It looks great! Someday I’d like to make one of these. I just had too many things going for this time.
I know what you mean about not having enough background, but I am glad you had this background. I love it and I love your solution for the templates. We all come up with creative ways to make this work! Squircles are fun and quilting it could be tons of fun or not. I am excited to see what you choose!
Amazing free wheelin! I love the Grunge in Faded Denim as the background!
These look like they’d be so complicated to get right. You’ve mastered it. I’ll leave this pattern to you.
Thanks for sewing with me! You were a great sounding board and inspiration.
<3