Wake Up Call

I've got a bell on my sewing machine. I ring it when things go right and today that bell got a proper workout. Many months ago, I designed a quilt as part of my daily effort in the Quilt Design A Day group which I called Wake Up Call.  The core block was a slightly warped circle paired with a pieced cross. Chunks of the circle were missing.

I always loved the design and intended on making it some day, but found myself less than thrilled at the prospect of cutting all the curves and non-standard size pieces. Rather than designing the quilt with standard 1/4" measurements, I'd designed it by eye. I adjusted the proportions until things felt right. It's a worthwhile effort visually, but that made it darn near impossible to find any off-the-shelf templates or diecut dies to cut the project. I hunted around anyway and even went as far as pitching the needed dies to a manufacturer in the hopes they'd add it to their line and help me out. No such luck.

After a few months without news, I conceded I'd need to hand cut the pieces. I worked up the templates with seam allowance in Inkscape and sent the file off to the acrylic cutters. The templates arrived this morning. 

This afternoon I took them out for a test drive. Through divine intervention, the test block fit together perfectly. No pins. No starch. I'm chalking it up as a miracle.

I always intended to make the quilt as shown in soft warm greys and creams with absent sides of the blocks. Today's test block got me excited though. I might need to make a full block version in prints too. Chi-ching! Ring that bell! Things are looking bright as the patchwork queue continues to grow.