This is one of the quilts I have been working on this winter. The wheels are all sewed together, but now I am working on the embellishments and attaching the wheels to the squares.

The centers are silk flowers that are taken apart. I put Fray Check on them and sewed them down with a straight stitch. I put rick rack around the edge of the wheels. I managed to find 16 different colors in both the daisies and the rick rack, in different sizes. So this quilt is going to be a RIOT of color. It took a while to find all those colors, which of course, was half the fun.

I have been lazy about working on it the past few weeks. I have to redo the one with the black flower in the middle because I somehow moved it while I was sewing it, so it's not centered.

Anyway, it's nice and springy, and I thought if I showed pictures, I might be inspired to finish it!

Very cool. Bernina has a nifty cirular stitching tool that would have been awesome for this project. I don't own it, but I've seen videos..

Thank you! I'll have to Google that. I have a Bernina 430 and wouldn't mind making another one of these in a different color scheme.

ETA- I think you need the embroidery attachment and I don't have that... yet! :0)

Beautiful work, and soooo colorful.

That looks awesome!

Oh how fun!!! I love your fabric choices and embellishments. Thanks for sharing. :)

Nope no embroidery attachment needed. It just hooks on to your stitch plate and allows you to stitch perfect circles.

SWEET!!!! :thumbup:

Ditter

Wonderful. I like the idea of using the flowers for the centers. Really makes the quilt!

Beautiful :thumbup:

Very Nice!

Very cute!

That's pretty! I was expecting to see cowboy boots and covered wagons! LOL

OH Yes, lovely and springy!

Oh, you must finish.....it's fantastic!!! What a great job so far!!! :D :D ;-)

WOW!!!!! :shock: :thumbup:

That is an awesome project. I love the way the black backgrounds make the wagon wheels pop. Great idea. It's going to be a wonderful quilt. Thanks for sharing.

Fun! What a happy quilt!

What a cool looking quilt to be,lol!! Please finish it!!

that is gone to be so neat when its done, you did a fantastic job. Penny

WOW ! I love the colors :thumbup: Great Job

Love all the colors. When I saw the title of the thread I was thinking something "western - pioneers". The center flower is a great idea.

Gosh it's incredible! :thumbup: I love it so much!

Love your color combenation. Theresse

Those are really original and wild.

Thank you all! I always love posting pics on here because you get so many nice compliments! :0)

Now if my life would slow down a little so I could sew some more...

Love it!

nice not seen anythinglike it before, love all the bright colors on the blacks/white

Great quilt and love the color. I have to find that pattern!

Thank you! I can't take credit for the design- I saw wheels like this here: http://cvquiltworks.blogspot.com/200...t-retreat.html

Jackie was in turn inspired by this tutorial: http://mrsschmenkmanquilts.wordpress...-rac-applique/

Just another example of the awesomeness that is the World Wide Web. Someone sees something, changes it a little to reflect their own taste and so on and so on.

I learned about using silk flowers for embellishing at a class I took from this local art quilter: http://artsychickquilts.blogspot.com/

So this is just a compilation of other people's ideas. I drafted my own pattern, because I make 1/2" seams. You could just use a Dresden Plate template, or I think there are even circle wedge templates available. I will walk you through some of the steps I took and hopefully you can take it from there.

To make your own wedge template, make a circle the size you want to end up with, using poster board, a string, pin and pencil- like you did in grade school. (Mine was about 18" across.) Unless you can find a nice big round thing to trace. That would be even easier. Then draw a line halfway across, then intersect that line with another at a 90 degree angle. So you have a big "+" across your circle. It helps to have a large clear ruler with angle lines on it, like one you would use with a rotary cutter.

Then just keep drawing lines halfway between between the lines of your "+", then halfway between THOSE lines, til you have 16 even wedges. Then cut out one of the wedges, trace it on another piece of poster board or plastic and add your seam allowance with a ruler. I added a 1/2" on either side, but most people would use 1/4". Just remember that whatever you add, that is your seam allowance and if you use a different one, your circle won't lay flat.

I trimmed a little off the point of my wedge so that I ended up with an empty center- with my thick seams I had to- but don't take so much off that your center hole is too big. (Then the flower won't cover it.)

Next, I sewed together two sets of strips that added up to the length of my wedge. My strips ended at about 8". Some of my strip sets were made of two even strips- like 4" and 4", and some were uneven- 3" and 5". I alternated those circles in the layout of the quilt for more variety, but you could do them all the same way.

Then I laid the template over the strip sets, and traced it with a pen, flip-flopping it so that I got alternating wedges. If you have, say, red and blue in your strips, you will have 8 with the red on the fat end of the wedge, and 8 with the blue on the fat end of the wedge.

Then sew them together with the skinny parts at the bottom, alternating your wedges. You should end up with a nice flat circle if you managed to get your wedges cut out correctly. I had to do it twice before I got it right. So make your first couple out of fabric that doesn't matter.

To applique the circles onto the backgrounds I just use my kids' glue sticks and apply it on the edge of the circle on the back and fold it over about 1/4". When that is all folded, I spray some quilt basting spray to the back of the circle and center it on the black background. (Fold the black into quarters and finger press to find your exact center.) Then I just use a straight stitch all the way around on the edge to sew it to the background. You could use a hem stitch, too, but it gets covered by the rick rack, so it really doesn't matter. If you don't have quilt basting spray, you can pin it, but the spray is faster and you don't get poked fingers.

The rick rack I apply by sewing around once in a straight line in the center of the rick rack, right on the edge of the circle, then I go around again going up and down each zig and zag. I don't want it to curl after I wash it. For the really large rick rack I went around each side of the rick rack, which took a long time, but I know it won't curl on me.

For the silk flowers, just pull them apart, apply Fray Check and pin, then straight stitch them on, going up and down each petal. The basting spray did not hold the silk flowers down for whatever reason, so I found I did have to pin them.

I had to get a lot of new thread to match my silk flowers and rick rack. ;0)

I hope this helps, and if not, PM me and I will try to explain it better.

This is fantastic! Where did you get the idea of this quilt?

Thank you!

See the bottom of page two- there are some links and directions!

Interesting wagon wheels. I am not familar with this design. It is a beautiful quilt.

Interesting wagon wheels. I am not familar with this design. It is a beautiful quilt.

really kool.

wow, awesome