"Fairy Rings" - DONE

My favorite part are the feet sticking out!

This quilt pattern is again, a Kaleidoscope quilt. I made 2 strip sets of the same strata, pressed one up, the other down, and sewed them together, being careful matching seams. This arrangement purposely does NOT have the kaleidoscope effect I usually aim for. I purposefully made a variety of "rings", just for a child's interest.

Meggie asked for "Fairies". This Fairy fabric came from Keepsake Quilting - it is an amazing piece of fabric, excellent quality, and more than I ever pay for fabric, but worth it now. The orange is supposed to be kinda melon, and I was thinking this quilt was toooo soft and wimpy (wimpy is NOT my style). And, the orangey melon has little stars that actually glow in the dark - I tried it out. THAT feature was too good to pass up. Yes, it kinda jumps out at you but I like it.

Fairy Rings are circles of growth, grass, or mushrooms that are found in more humid climates, often in yards. I was told that fairies had been on the lawn during the night, and had been playing, and the mushrooms were their little chairs, or maybe umbrellas. The "fairy rings" evolve from some kind of spore growth pattern. Meggie lives in Wisconsin where there is plenty moisture, so I'm sure she's seen these 'rings' in her yard.

Below - I like it laying in the snow. I'm never going to challenge Diane Gaudynski but I'm good enough!

Close up of quilting - this swoopy, leaf/heart pattern in the double inner border is/was the first pattern I learned to machine quilt on my DSM. If you outline it a second time, it has more 'heft.' The swoopy, twirling viney lines are great fillers, and you can bet a child will glom onto that pattern and follow it with her fingers, as she slips off into a nap. It goes in the mail!

Fairy Quilt, WIP -

What's not to love about that texture? It looks like snails trails, doesn't it? Totally in keeping with the "Fairy Ring" theme of this kaleidoscope.

This is for a great niece, Meggie. We just received their Annual Christmas Letter, along with photos, and by gosh, that little girl is growing too fast -- I had better get this project done and in the mail! Quilt dimensions are about 70 x 70 inches, and little Meggie WAS 3 1/2 when she asked for it last July!

Halleluja - don't have to cook tonight (leftovers, yum!) and I can work on this project several times today. I'm being careful to do exercises between short machine quilting periods.

(If you are wanting to learn to do MQ on your DSM, please give it a good try, and practice. Yes, it's a bit of a nuisance to layer and baste it, but that doesn't cost anything, and there is real pleasure in sitting down and turning a 'plain' quilt top into a lovely thing with your own machine.)

Fairy Rings, in process

Wow - these photos are murky! They weren't murky in my photo! The quilt colors are much prettier in person!

Saturday I put the blocks together, after much moving them, rearranging, etc. The corners of the rings were too white so by adding quick corners of color (blue and lavender), it reduced the WHITE, and added to the pattern. Unfortunately, somehow, those fairy dickens moved some of the blocks around and 2 were sewn WRONG! Dang it!!! By morning, I had renewed energy and determination to unsew and resew them in the proper location.
This is the cutest fabric! There is leftover for the back also. It's directional, and after much stressing, I made the pattern more around the quilt (cut on the length of fabric). The top and bottom were already too wide to use just one piece on the width. Stress over! Hey, it took courage to CUT through all those sweet little fairies!


In this dry climate, many people are not familiar with the term " fairy rings" In moist climates, frequently in lawns, you see a circle of grass that has grown differently from the regular lawn. Or, you see a circle of mushrooms that presumably the fairies use as sitting stools, or umbrellas. The growth pattern has something to do with spores. Fairies and elves get confused, and sometimes fairies are good, other times evil. (Hey, I checked Wikipedia!) This quilt is going to a moist climate. It's big - about 68 inches square to a 3 1/2 yr. old great niece, who asked for "Fairies" and "Girly".

I have several rings that include a melon/orangey fabric that glows in the dark - looking (to me) like lightning bugs. I'll get to quilting it soon.