Tonight! 6pm ET! I hope you can join us live for a convivial hang, to chat about design options, piecing rings, and who knows what else! Bring us your questions! Can't make it in person? We'll have a recording! Join us live here. 

Hey, hey Free-Wheelers, its Wendy from The Next Stitch here and its time to start sewing!

The goal this week is to sew the Ring Quarters and I will be stepping you through the way I approach the improv piecing.

 

To win our Week 2 prizes (scroll all the way down 👇🏻 to see these and our Week 1 winners!):

 

1. Post a photo of your Ring Quarters (or arcs) on Instagram by midnight October 12 (ET) with hashtag #FWSGSAL25, and 

 

2. Comment on the official week 2 post on @dsquilts feed (below). 

First of all, take the time to re-read the pattern again, as Denyse has included a lot of detail and useful diagrams. She recommends cutting wedge-shaped pieces; however over the years, I’ve found that rectangles work best for me. You do what works best for you! To speed things up, I layer my FQs and cut strips approximately 5 inches wide and then cut them again into random-width rectangles.

 

To help with placement, I use the template as a guide. I use the acrylic templates, but your cardstock one will work just as well. Working left to right, I place the template on top of the first piece and lay the next one over it, adjusting the placement by kicking the corner in.

Maintaining the angle, flip the top piece over, slide the template out and stitch. 

Trim any excess back to the usual ¼-inch seam allowance and press. Don’t rub with the iron as this will cause distortion.

Keep working your way around the curve, checking as you go that you are adequately covering the template.  You will find that sometimes you need to slide the next piece up or down a bit to ensure good coverage.

When trimming the pieced ¼ ring units I like to use my rotating cutting mat as it means I can keep the template perfectly still. I use my big 60mm rotary cutter when cutting around the acrylic templates, but lots of folks tell me they prefer using a smaller blade. Whichever size you use, a sharp blade is your friend! If you don’t have a rotating mat, cutting from the end of a bench or table where you can move around three sides will help enormously, or use a smaller mat you can turn (carefully) on your work surface!

Haven't got the acrylic templates? No drama. Just trace around the your card stock template with a fabric marker and trim with your fabric shears.

If you find that some of your Ring Quarters have angles between the pieces that aren't working the way you expect, know this is a common experience as you get the hang of this process. There is no wrong way here, and TBH it has been a few years since I've sewn these and as you can see, it took me a few to get back into the groove. I’m not fussed, though, as I think a few oddball angles add to the overall charm. However, if this isn't the look you want, here are some troubleshooting tips.

 

Remember, your FWSG ring isn’t a perfect circle. When working with wedges, the angle needs to be gradual, and as I approach the apex of the curve, I place my pieces almost vertically. 

 

If using rectangles, angle the top fabric rectangle slightly toward the left when you start, as shown below. Make sure you maintain at least a quarter inch seam allowance overlap with the piece below at that bottom intersection!

Straighten your pieces up as you approach the centre or apex of the curve. As you approach the right end of the ring, start angling the rectangles slightly toward the right, as shown below. Once again, make sure you are maintaining at least a quarter inch seam allowance. No one wants their FWSG to fall apart with the first wash!

Most important of all, just have fun with it!

Remember, the FWSG templates include extra seam allowance on the outside of the block, including on the ends of the Ring Quarter template. This gives you some flexibility in trimming out your Ring Quarters, and provides some wiggle room when sewing your Ring Blocks together.
 

This extra though, will be trimmed away later when squaring up your 1/4 block unit (Ring Quarter Block). To avoid weird skinny bits after trimming, I usually choose wider pieces for the ends. 

 

Later, when laying out my blocks, I sometimes purposefully place the same fabric on the adjoining ends (below).  This tricks the viewer's eye a little, and helps to disguise the underlying grid of the block construction. 

Once you have a few ¼ rings made, I encourage you to stop and pop them up on the design wall (or the floor!) and reflect on your progress. Here are a few things you might want to consider:

 

• Lay your ring units over your background fabric(s). Are you happy with the effect? If not, now is a great time to consider alternative options.

 

• Is the placement of colour and value what you were aiming for? Is there one fabric that is jumping out? Maybe you want to edit it out, or maybe it just needs to occur only once or twice in a full ring, not every Ring Quarter. Personally, I will be watching those stripes as they seem to amplify any weirdness in my angles*.

 

• Do you prefer the generosity of wider pieces, or are you into narrow strips that appear like piano keys? Maybe you want to mix it up and set a rhythm of wide and narrow pieces.

 

That’s it from me. Happy free-wheeling everyone, and keep posting. We can’t wait to see your progress!

I love Wendy's method for improvising her rings! There is no one right way to go about this. I do something similar, but use my paper template sheet (as explained in the pattern instructions) to layout my Ring Quarter piece options on the cutting table, then once I've worked out my fabric piece order, I move the whole sheet—with fabrics in place—to my sewing machine. Each time I sew a piece, I return the section to the template sheet to check my angles and ensure I'm on track.

 

One tip I have for working with the sheet in this way is to first draw lines to complete the Inner Background piece, so that you know where the corner is (I slip a another sheet of paper underneath and use a ruler to rough out the block corner). Use that corner point as the center for dividing the ring like a pie, or the hands of a clock. These lines can serve as a reminder when you sew to maintain angles that work with the ring shape (or not).  

*Wendy mentioned keeping an eye on her stripes, and I concur. I like to mix up the direction of striped (or other directional) fabric in my rings. Sometimes I orient them to follow the circular motion of the ring (like the grey stripe, above right), as well orienting them toward the inside and outside of the ring, as Wendy did with her stripe. I love the mix of motion it creates!

Congrats to our week 1 winners! 

@occasional_sunbeams won a copy of Volume N: Notions from the Encyclopedia of Inspiration from Uppercase –such a great prize and a scrumptious-looking solids pull from K—can't wait to see that FWSG come together! Kellie from @laughingotterstudios won a copy of the very delightful QuiltFolk Cats  (featuring foreword written by my own @georgeandeliot 😸, from our friends at QuiltFolk. She's making a FWSG after my heart with some vintage Flea Market Fancy, on either a lovely grey linen or stark white ground. 👀 Last but definitely not least, @flippyfrogs wins a fat quarter bundle of Colorwash, donated by our friends at XLN Fabrics. Jen is making a scrappy version—aiming to play with a “chaotic” mix of prints on a blue/black ground and pops of color. One to watch! Thanks to all of you for your posts and commens—I'm enjoying getting to know a bit about each of you!

 

A special thank you to our sponsors for providing that extra bit of mojo for our participants!

We have a delicious lineup of prizes for Week 1! To be eligible to win, follow the prompts at the top of this email. 👆🏻 Here's what our generous sponsors have provided:

 

• A copy of QuiltFolk's special QuiltFolk Cats, with a foreword penned (okay, dictated) by my own furry companions, George and Eliot. Like their quarterly magazine, QuiltFolk Cats is beautifully printed, and ad-free. This special edition is 124 pages of pure cattitude, featuring stories from quilters whose lives—and creative practices—are delightfully entangled with cats. You’ll meet artists inspired by their feline companions, quilters who love fostering kittens as much as they love sewing, and perhaps even a few internet-famous cats. It’s a celebration of quilts, creativity, and the irresistible cat charm woven into it all.

 

• A juicy, curated 25-piece fat quarter bundle of Andover Century Solids in “ocean”, donated by our friends at the delightful Toronto Canada shop Fabric Spark! Thanks Daryl!

 

• A fat quarter bundle of beautiful Colorwash by Carrie Bloomston, dontated by our friends at XLN Fabrics! Thanks guys!