A Thing For Circles

My daughter has this thing about circles. She loves to draw them, and then scribble them out (or fill them in, I'm not quite sure which) if they aren't to her satisfaction. In addition, any letter in her coloring books that have an enclosed space (a,b,d,e,g...you get the idea) get filled in. Raindrops - filled in. Eyes, noses, fingernails - filled in. We're not quite sure what it means, but it's pretty interesting to watch her ever so carefully color in these spaces.

So on Thursday, as I was going through my blog roll, I happened upon this post from one of my new favorite sewing/quilting blogs. A circle quilt. For some reason, I am obsessed with this quilt. I can't tell you how many times I went back to this page over the weekend to study the pictures. Amanda's version is based on this tutorial (from another great blog), and I like her version better. To me, the blank squares give your eye a resting place. I went through my stash and found this fat quarter bundle just begging to be cut into circles:

The tutorial recommends using an old CD for your circle template and cutting around it with your rotary cutter. I don't trust my rotary cutter skills that much yet, so I've been laying the CD on the fabric and folding it either in thirds (for the pile of circles already cut) or in half (the strip at the top with the circle outlines) and pinning the layers together. I cut off the excess at the top, and then after I cut out the circles (with my scissors), I cut the excess off the side - which gives me one wide strip and one narrow strip. I'm thinking I might use those in between the square groups or as a small border if I have enough. I still don't have my background fabric, or backing and binding, but I figure the next time I get to Quilter's Corner, I'll take my pile of circles and get advice. It's hard to tell in the picture, but there's a little bit of dark brown in the palette, so I'm thinking about using a lighter color as the background squares, and then backing it in dark brown. Thoughts from the blogosphere?

I've also got fabric for two more quilts picked out, for a set of twin girls. Their mom does a lot of pink/purple with them, so I thought they were perfect. I'm not sure yet if I'll do circle quilts with them or do them the same as my Pooh quilt, but I think I'll back the purple one with pink and the pink one with purple.

So I guess I can see where my daughter gets her thing for circles. :)