More is More

For nearly a year I have been, off and on, embroidering circle designs on white fabric with a layer of bating and muslin backing and quilting in circles around the finished design.  I was inspired by a quilt Rachel and I saw two years ago in Mancusco International Quilt Exhibit in Manchester, Vermont. I beleive that quilt had 70 some embroidered circles.  It was simple and very fascinating to look at each unique design. I began creating a similar one and Rachel was enthused enough to do five of the circle designs although she is a painter and not a sewer.

The work was slow so I put it aside frequently and made other, more conventional quilts.  Now I've a total of 42 circles  which I put together into a quilt to show at next month's Bayberry Quilt Show.  I like them together without extras -- the inspirational quilt had white designs at the corners of the blocks, either embroidered or crocheted. They did not distract from the embroidery design. But I have a collection of felt and bright plastic flower shaped buttons and decided to see what happened when I put them in the corners between blocks -- not one, but two layers, one top of the other.

I laid it out on the sewing room floor and took photos to help me decide what I thought. I asked Rachel to come over and tell me what she thought. We decided more is more -- more interesting, more exciting although possibly more distracting from the seriously creative circular designs.  So today's job is to sew them on and then the quilt will be finished -- after nearly two years.  It seems amazingly small to have taken so long.