Return of the Rings

One of the projects I started last year as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge was Ring Cycles, a pattern by Lessa Siegele that is available on Craftsy. Here is a photo of one of the versions included with the pattern. I love the circular movement of this design.

Ring Cycles, pattern by Lessa Siegele, available on Craftsy

The design is a variation of the Jack's Chain pattern made from nine-patch blocks combined with hexagons and 60-degree triangles to create the circular patterns. Last year I made around 200 9-patch blocks and 50 or so 8-patch versions of the blocks. That was the easy part--when I started joining the blocks to the hexagons and triangles, I discovered that joining the parts together is a much slower process. I got frustrated by it and tucked everything away in a box.

 A couple weeks ago, a friend showed me some sets of Marti Michell's Perfect Patchwork Templates that she was using. One of the sets was for hexagons and triangles with 3" finished sides, the exact size I need for this project. The templates have holes at the corners that work great for marking the ends of seams. Those marks let me know where I need to stop and backstitch at the beginning and end of every seam, making my seams come out much more accurately. That was exactly what I needed to get back on track with this project.

Previously, I had four of the hexagon units constructed. After working on more parts for almost a week, I managed to complete 10 more hexagon units and a few of the partial side units. I haven't decided which way I will orient the rows. I can either end up with a straight column of blocks running top to bottom like the first photo below, or the straight row could run horizontally like the second photo. That decision won't happen anytime soon. For now I will continue making the different units needed for the design. The photos show less than half of the total number of blocks for my quilt.

Vertical rows

Horizontal rows

I am linking up to Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt, and Moving It Forward at Em's Scrapbag. Check out all of them for tons of amazing quilting inspiration! 

Julie in GA