LE2: Putting Down The Ring

Accuracy is everything, so check and then double check the measurements of your ring, background fabric and inside ring measure. I'm cutting away the inside circle to leave a margin all the way around.

 Clip all the way around with sharp scissors, working in small neat snips

Avoid clipping all the way to the edge; when you turn the edge over, you don't want any snipped fabric to show or tear. So when you snip, always leave a millimetre un-clipped as a safety margin. My needle here shows how I don't snip all the way.

 Keep checking back to the pattern template for accuracy

I often snip my points or centre markings - these snips indicate points that make sense to me. I do this throughout all my patterns so if you ever see my fusible or progress work with snips, that's why. It's a kind of guide to help me keep position.

 These points are important so I've marked them

with this tool

The snip guides help me to position everything just so. When it comes to positioning the compass ring, you must take care to do so accurately. This will prevent warping when you stitch it down to the rest of the centre.

With the main points pinned down, I unpin each section at a time and dab basting glue in the area before carefully putting it down and positioning it into place.

Dabbing one section at a time makes placement easier. If you dab the whole ring and then try to guide it into position, it will be hard to accurately and flatly guide down.

 Section by section

 And finally I add the centre polka dot middle

Whenever you iron into position to set the glue for the time being, always cover the block with fabric. This keeps the fabric clean, prevents shine and I find it gets blocks flatter than when they are ironed directly. It works for me.

If you're making any of my patterns that require a 'ring' I have a video tutorial on how I do this relating to my Oma's Blues quilt and in particular the rings that are created for the charm plates. You can view this tutorial by clicking on my side bar under the tutorials tab.