Circle of Fire - a blue-ribbon winner

Many American Quilter readers wrote to me about our November 2009 cover quilt, Circle of Fire, designed and made by Pat Wolfe of San Diego, California. Some were seeking the source of Pat's black batik background fabric (no longer available, sorry to say), and some just let me know they planned to make this dynamic design. But Pauline Charles of Annville, Pennsylvania, was the first to send me a photo of her quilt: She writes:

"Hi Chris. I have just completed a quilt that I call In the Beginning from the Circle of Fire pattern, on the cover of American Quilter. I entered it in the Pennsylvania Farm Show last weekend and it took a blue ribbon in the machine-quilted wallhanging category. I am very excited! When my magazine arrived, I knew I had to make that quilt. I started it after Thanksgiving and even used it to demonstrate machine piecing at our local quilt show. What fun it was!"

Pauline continues, "I was reading your Sept. 28, 2009 blog entry (written by AQ pattern editor Marje Rhine) describing the size of the hole to cut in the framing piece...after I did it. I followed the directions exactly but walked around the project for several days. I was afraid to cut, as I only had just enough fabric to do it once.
I love your magazine. This is the first, not the last, pattern I have used, too."

Pauline, you did a great job with this pattern! Congratulations on your blue ribbon, and may you win many more in the future. Thank you for sharing your quilt with American Quilter readers.

Pieced circles: Getting the measurements correct

Isn’t the cover quilt for the November issue of American Quilter great? It’s Circle of Fire, designed and foundation pieced by Pat Wolfe.

As pattern editor for American Quilter, I get to see all these great quilts before you do. It is my job, among other things, to make sure that dimensions for pieces, borders, appliqué, etc. are correct. I’ve been a quilter for a long time but I am constantly learning new things. While working with this pattern, I became puzzled about why the diameter of the hole in the black frame around the pieced circle needed to be 1” smaller diameter than that of the unfinished pieced circle. This seemed to be too small an opening. I talked with Pat and thought about this for a long time before I came up with the following explanation that makes it clear for me. Suppose the diameter of your unfinished circle piece is 4½”. Subtract 1/2” for the seam allowance all around and the finished circle piece size will be 4”. If I cut a 4”diameter round hole in the middle of the frame, the raw edge of the hole will just fit around the finished circle, but it can’t be stitched to the circle because there is no seam allowance. To add the seam allowance I must reduce the size of the hole by 1/2” (two 1/4” seam allowances). I must cut a hole that is 3½” in diameter. This is 1” smaller than the original unfinished circle size.

(Submitted by Marje Rhine, AQ Pattern Editor)