I also use plates, cups etc for my circle templates. I have a circle cutting rotary cutter that is like a compass with rotary cutter instead of a pencil. I have a hard time making good circles with it. I have had the best success with fusing it to freezer paper before I cut. I hate to applique. There is a method for doing inset circles totally by machine. I use it all the time. I just taught a demo at my quilt guild on it. Several people tried it and said it was easy. I can't get the link to transfer on here. It is Dale Fleming method and it is called the 6 minute circle.

Accuquilt! I have the Baby and there is a die that cuts perfect circles 2, 3, & 5 inch diameter. I love it, and I do have the circle cutter from Olfa, which is great for larger circles. Applique on a square with the circle is better, fuse it!!

Whatever you use, make sure and use it to cut the template from freezer paper or whatever, and then use the gathering technique that people have mentioned here to turn under the edges of the fabric. Otherwise you'll have some pretty pointy circles**. Of course, those could be design elements....

**Please don't ask me how I know ;-).

Your quilt is just beautiful!!!!!

I just use an old CD to draw my circles and it works for me.

I use both plates/saucers/cups depending on the size I need. I also own an OLFA circle cutter. It's sort of a compass with a replaceable rotary blade. Works great. It adjusts to the size you need and it's better than buying a template for every size circle you may want to make. Goes up to more than 8" in diameter.

The question for me is not the circles.... there are so many things around the house that can be used. It's .... what method do you want to use to apply them to the fabric? If you don't want to applique, sewing circles can be a challenge. I use freezer paper,
1. take a good sized square of freezer paper and draw my circle in the middle. Cut out the circle.
2. Iron the circle to the back side of the fabric.... this will be the fabric around the circle.
3. Cut the center of the fabric away 1/2" away from the paper. Then snip the fabric close to the freezer paper.....
but not all the way to the paper to make tabs that can be folded under the paper.
4. Use a glue stick and glue the fabric tabs to the paper. Be careful that you don't get glue too close to the fold.
Glue can cause your needle to not stitch when you're ready to sew. Smooth the round edge. I take an old
magazine and lay the fabric with paper on it when I glue. Then, I can just throw away the magazine page and
have a fresh one for the next glue job.
5. Now you have a fabric circle that you can focus over a picture or whatever to center the fabric the way you like
it. Now glue the tabs of fabric and glue your circle over the selected fabric circle you want to make.
6. Carefully, lift the original fabric to expose the freezer paper and machine sew along the edge of the paper. You
are actually sewing the 2 fabrics together. Tear away the freezer paper and behold...... you have a perfect
circle.

I HOPE THIS MAKES SENSE.

I make large ovals or circles this way. You can't do squares or rectangles but it makes the most perfect circles you ever saw. For small circles, I iron the freezer paper to the back side of the fabric, hand sew a row of stitches about 1/8" away from the paper and draw it up tightly.

This is a baby quilt I've just gotten ready to quilt so there are a lot of pins in the picture. But, I made all the circles and ovals using the method I described.

I love your quilt, it is on my to do list as I have lots of Asian fabric, thanks for sharing the instructions.

I am with you on this one, do not need another ruler to clutter up my sewing room.

Here's a video that might give you an idea.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2INxkVfGyqE