Circle of Prosperity, January, 2015

I have titled this small quilt “Circle of Prosperity”. It may be recognizable to readers as Burgoyne’s Quilt but was also identified by other names one of which was Wheel of Fortune. It seemed a likely candidate for sending a prosperous new year wish to all.

Things I like or would change: it was fast; the color contrast makes the design obvious (love those Grunge fabrics from Moda); quilting motif was easy to develop (draw) by dividing a square into 8 parts and then free form drawing flower petals in each section; border would have better proportion if wider by about 1 ½ inches each side. Below are the general directions for making the block with borders.

Fabric:

Block: ¼ yd dark; ½ yd light

Border and binding: ½ yd if horizontal stripe, ¾ yd if vertical stripe (I cut my binding 1 7/8” wide, if you use different width you may need more)

Backing: ¾ yd

Batting: 28” square

Cutting Dark:

3 strips 1 ½” by width of fabric (wof), cut one strip into 3- 13” pieces;

4 squares 2 ½”;

1 square 1 ½”

Cutting Light:

3 strips 1 ½” by wof, cut one strip into 3- 13” pieces;

3 strips 2 ½”, subcut into 4 pieces 15 ½” x 2 ½”, 4 pieces 1 ½” x 2 ½” and 8 pieces

3 ½” x 2 ½”;

1 strip 3 ½”, subcut into 4 pieces 5 ½” x 3 ½”

Cutting mitered border and binding:

4 pieces 3” x 24 ½” (or wait and measure finished edge after block is constructed);

3 strips 1 7/8” by width of fabric.

Construction:

Use ¼” seam allowance; press seams toward dark or toward the larger unseamed piece

 Sew each dark 1 ½” x wof strip to the corresponding light 1 ½” x wof strip; cut into 20- 1 ½” x 2 ½” sections and 8- 2 ½” x 2 ½” sections. Sew 16 pairs of 1 ½” x 2 ½” sections to make 2 ½” square (figure 1). Sew 2 ½” x 2 ½” to either side of remaining 1 ½” sections.

Sew 13” strips together to form a dark, light, dark strip set and a light, dark, light strip set; cut d,l,d set into 8- 1 ½” sections and the l,d,l set into 4- 1 ½” sections. Sew 2 d,l,d with one l,d,l in the center ( figure 2). Make 4

Make center square using the four 2 ½” dark squares, four 1 ½” x 2 ½” light sections and one1 ½” square as shown in figure 3.

Use four 9-patch and four 3 ½” x 5 ½” rectangles to add the second round as shown in figure 4.

Follow finished photo to complete the third and fourth round. Add mitered borders by stitching each side from corner to corner but stopping and starting stitching ¼” from edge of block. After stitching all four borders line up two adjacent sides of border pieces (folding excess fabric from block out of the way), mark and stitch a 45 degree angle from stitching line at inner corner (block) to outer corner. Check for accuracy before pressing and trimming off excess. Baste backing, batting and finished block together. I quilted a flower in the center and then did a meandering stipple. Geometric quilting lines following the block design could be used. This is also a good time to practice any design you would like.