6 Minute Circles - Design 4 - Split Circles

My latest design with 6 minute circles is "Split Circles" and in some very cheery colours to brighten up those dark rainy days.

Split Circle Blocks 
I started this mini quilt by making up 5" squares of strips of fabric and this time I pressed all my seams open. I make them at 5" which is larger than the finished circle block of 4½" as mine inevitably turn out a bit wonky and I have to trim them!

I cut the squares in half and then sewed a wedge shaped piece of my background fabric between the two halves. I hope you can see the measurements written on my pic - it is 5½" long, ½" wide at the narrow end and 1¼" wide at the other end. After sewing the seams are pressed away from the wedge fabric.

My post here shows how to do the circular hole in the background fabric. My circle this time is a little over 3" and when I place it over the stripey fabric I simply make sure that the edges of the stripey square are covered by background fabric and that the two halves of circle look about the same size. This way I can get good variation in the angle of the wedge.

Wonky Blocks
To make the wonky blocks I cut four coloured squares of fabric each measuring 2¾" x 2¾" and two strips of background fabric 1" x 5½", one of which I cut in half.

I sew the shorter pieces of background fabric between two pairs of coloured squares, pressing the seams away from the background fabric.

I check that I have a nice straight edge to sew the long strip to, trimming if necessary,

and I fold the long strip in half and make a crease mark which I position in the centre of the shorter strip. This crease helps me to get a nice + of background fabric in the centre of the block.

After sewing I press the seams away from the background fabric - sorry, I know I keep repeating this but it makes all the difference.

Now I do the wonky bit using a plastic ruler and rotary cutter. Because I want the + of my block to be in the centre, and the size of the block once cut to be 4½" square, I find the mark that is 2¼" from two adjacent sides. I've marked it with a black dot in my pic. I make sure that this is in the centre of the + and that I haven't rotated the ruler too much, before I cut with the rotary cutter.

I don't want all the blocks to rotate the same way so have to change the placement of the ruler for every other one.

All Put Together
This is my mini quilt after sewing the nine blocks together.

I'm pleased with how it looks, but my original intention was to use those little circles that I cut from the background fabric. Dither....dither....dither......... In for a penny, in for a pound! So I sewed them to the centre of the wonky blocks ....... I like!

I quilted around the half circles and the coloured shapes using the walking foot on my sewing machine

And then I free motion quilted in unevenly spaced, and a bit wonky, lines to add lots of texture to the background. For the binding I used one of the darker fabrics in the quilt.

With a bit of photo editing this pic gives an indication of how the two blocks would look in a larger quilt.

I think that this will be my last 6 minute circle design in this particular format, although definitely not the last time I sew some lovely circles - I can't quite believe how easy they have proved to be.

Here are the 3 previous designs with links to their posts

See-Through Circles

Keyhole Circles

and Moon Circles

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts - Finish it up Friday

Thank you for visiting and happy stitching - Anita x