Cheaper Than Therapy Quilting: Folk Art Blooms

Friday, August 27, 2010

Circles

I have a nasty habit of procrastinating things I think will be unpleasant.

Case in point -- the dust on my furniture! I mean, seriously, it doesn't take THAT long to dust, but I whine and postpone and bribe the kids 'til the job gets done.

My current procrastination problem involves circles. What is it with applique designs and circles? Does every flower need a center? Are berries SO lovely they must adorn every vine in the applique kingdom?

Apparently, yes. In the Circuit Rider, there are three -- count 'em, THREE! -- blueberry blocks. Blueberries block number one has 24 berries. Blueberries blocks two and three each have 29 berries!

Another block from "Folk Art Blooms" -- a block of the Month with luscious Buggy Barn fabrics (yes, yes, I'm working on more than one! Sigh :-d) -- has 40 berries!

That's a total of 122 berries. ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-TWO berries. Plus flower centers and star centers. Ugh!

I know how to do them. I have Perfect Circles from Karen Kay Buckley. I draw the circle on the wrong side of the fabric. Then I baste in the seam allowance and draw the basting stitches around the Perfect Circle template, press, pop out the template, and VOILA! (as advertised) a perfect circle.

I think I'm overwhelmed by the sheer volume of circles I need to do!

My "Accomplish Something Today" spirit says I need to tackle them here and now. Do all the circle prep at one time then I can enjoy the process of adding them to my blocks.

Luke 9:51 tells us that Jesus "resolutely set his face toward Jerusalem." And "for the joy set before Him, he endured the cross." (Hebrews 12:2)

Rather than focusing on the tedium of so many circles, I need to focus on the beautiful blocks in their finished form. The fact that I'll be that many blocks closer to the finished quilt. The fact that anything worth having is worth working for.