Help/advice on making shadows for circles
 

I want to appliqué circles with shadows on a quilt.

Have you you ever done circle shadows? Do you have any hints or advice for making the shadows lie flat and look great? How did you cut the shadows? As a half a circle, or just as a crescent? How did you appliqué them? Did you line them with a thin fabric backing or just appliqué the shadow?

i have had some trouble with appliquéing circles before and I am looking for the best way!

Thanks for any help and ideas!

WOW, I have never heard of anything like that. Can you take a plate and put it upright and cast a shadow on it. When you get the angle correct, take a picture and maybe you will have your shadow with the correct proportion. Good luck and have fun.

If you mean a shadow like a ball would have if it sat on the floor the shape will be an ellipse. ManiacQuilter 2 had a good idea. Take whatever template you use to make your circles and cast a shadow onto a piece of paper. Trace it and you will have your template for the shadow.

What if you just cut out dark circles the same size as the other circles and play with them to get that effect? That looks like a fun quilt!

I love doing dimensional quilts with shadows and make them often. If you want a drop shadow (the kind that makes it look like something flat is floating above a surface), the easiest way to do it is to cut your shadow fabric using the same template used for the circle that is casting the shadow.

Once that's done, there are two ways you can proceed. You can appliqué the shadow directly to the background before adding the circle or you can appliqué the circle to the shadow and add them to the background as one piece.

Either way, decide how much of the shadow you want visible (a bigger shadow will mean the circle is floating higher off the surface) and mark a faint line along that arc. Cover that line just slightly with the circle. Treat the edge of your shadow the same way you treat the edge of your circle (turned, raw edge, etc). You can back your circle with light fabric to prevent the shadow fabric from showing through, and I would suggest you trim the shadow so not too much of it is underneath the circle.

Some "don't forgets" for shadowing:
Always remember the direction of the light. Keep it constant or you'll confuse the viewer and lose the shadow effect you're aiming for.
Remember that the shadow color is always a duller, darker color of the background. It has absolutely no relationship to the color of the object casting the shadow at all.

Ghostrider - thanks for the great advice! Just the kind I was looking for! Thanks loads!

Very happy to help. :) Have a great time with your project!

When I had this one lying on the bed for sandwiching, I came back into the room after getting more pins and found my cat lying on top of it trying to slide her front leg under the pink parts. Since it had fooled a critter that can catch a moth on the fly, I figured the illusion was successful.

http://i29.servimg.com/u/f29/13/49/59/13/010_co10.jpg

Draw two circles first with your template, then move the template slightly to the right or left and draw the crescent one of them and erase the line. You'll have your templates.

Pictures of balls and shadows on Google Images:

https://www.google.com/search?site=i...hadow&tbm=isch