Quilting Ring Cycles

And so it begins! I finished pin-basting the top, backing and batting together yesterday, and today, I began quilting Ring Cycles. Each nine-patch will have a circle around it, the circles overlapping slightly in the white triangles and forming a scallop around the edge of the central hexagons. It is a very plain quilting job, plain to emphasize the illusion of large circles created by the coloured nine-patches when viewed from a step or two back. It should go quickly, and I hope to have it done in time to put it in at least one fair next autumn. One small problem did arise before I could get started. I searched every possible hiding place for my circle templates and couldn't find them anywhere. I had just reached the conclusion that I wasn't going to be able to start the project today when I had a brainstorm: use the inside round of an embroidery hoop! I had one which was exactly the size I needed. Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention.