Ring Cycles

Day 304: I really wanted to start another quilt. I had a couple of designs in mind, both of which required a substantial amount of white/plain fabric, and that was going to be a problem with Joann's being a thing of the past. I will not shop at Cult Corner (i.e., Hobby Lobby), not if it means I never sew another stitch, and buying fabric on line is dicey. You have to be able to touch fabric to tell if it's suitable for a project, and much of the affordable muslin/broadcloth out there is cheaply made and thin. Walmart carries two-yard precuts of a decent quality, but the stores nearest me were all out of white. As I considered whether or not I wanted to cut up a bed sheet, I was still debating which design I most wanted to do: Double Wedding Ring (to replace the one I sold) or a variation of Jack's Chain called Ring Cycles. I'd already cut out several hundred pieces for DWR, but Ring Cycles was working on my head. I loved the way the big circles pop out of the design once a number of the rounds have been stitched together. Back off a few steps and look at the illustration on the right. Once the optical illusion resolves, you'll see what I mean.

I've spoken many times about how I prefer to sew by hand rather than with the machine, and the pinpoint accuracy of English paper piecing has always appealed to me, although I'd never done any of it. I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy all the basting, but I decided to do a sample block of Jack's Chain as a trial run. I didn't want to use up my print fabrics on a test, so I pulled out the box labelled "quilt solids" and dived in. And what to my wondering eyes did appear in the very bottom of the box? Five freaking yards of good quality white broadcloth! Five yards! After making three of the 9-patches (that's nine one-inch squares for a 3" x 3" square), I'm sold on English paper piecing. Ring Cycles it is, although I'm still going to finish the sample block. Who knows? Maybe by the time I'm done sewing this quilt, we'll have a decent fabric store again.