If I could make myself focus on one project at a time this one would be done already. But that's not my nature. My fabric business keeps me really busy (and I like that) but I try to set aside an an hour every day to do something and I let my mood decide what that that thing is. The marbles quilting requires me to be "on". I can do mosaic a bit tired and I can applique in front of the TV but the marbles have to be done when I'm able to focus. That's why they are a bit slow coming along but I am just fine with that.

Someone asked last week if I plan these out. I wish! 
I think we all know by now that I'm not good at planning my quilting. So with these I do keep track of what I've done but I don't really plan them. Maybe that's one reason they are taking so long to do! 

​Here are the latest 6.

Time for a few more marbles! 
The thing about this quilt is that it's turning into a wonderful "class" for me. By making myself do something different in each of the 100+ circles I'm having to explore some things that I might not otherwise. Like this heart template that I've had in my collection "forever" and possibly have never used. It turns out that it's a pretty good ruler!

Here's a peek at how they are looking on the quilt. I'm in love!

Let's sneak in a few more marbles this week! These 6 make me 46% done with the small circles.

Yes, I have a second post of marbles this week! I have 90 small marbles and 19 large marbles. With this 6 I have 36 of the 90 small marbles done or 40% of the small marbles.
Let's get to it.

I hope you don't mind seeing the quilted marbles because there are a total of 119 of them! I'm also not the fastest quilter in the world....because I get distracted. But I will eventually get all of them quilted. Here are 6 more.

I'm enjoying documenting all of my Spirograph-like motifs on my quilt. In many of these photos it appears that the stitching doesn't show well. Trust me, they do show up. The thread is very shiny but the camera is flattening it out.

Last week Carolyn asked what I'm using to mark the circles. I use a mechanical chalk pencil like this one. Most of the chalk marks come off with the stitching but the rest will wash out easily.

Let's get on with today's marbles:

I'm steadily making progress on my marbles. As you might imagine it's tedious work that also requires a lot of focus so I generally work on it about an hour at a time. I also do my share of ripping out stitches when things don't line up quite right. But it's fun and I'm keeping at it. Here are 6 more:

More marbles quilted this week!

I'm sure as time goes on I'll have plenty of duplicates. I'm not working very hard to avoid duplication. I'm just trying to try different things and I'm having fun and that's all that matters!

From the minute that I started making this quilt I knew that I wanted to do Spirograph quilting in the circles. I bought every circle and oval ruler from Quilter's Apothecary so that I'd have every possible curve. Quilter's Apothecary is the only place I know of that has every circle size in 1/2 inch increments. They also have a wonderful set of ovals.

​Then a couple of years ago I found Sue Heinz and her Circleliner series of marking tools. Her tools make is easy to divide circles into increments of 3, 4, 5 and 7 so I can divide a circle into 6, 15, 21, 16 and lots of other increments. 

With these tools I was ready to get started.

For reference here's the quilt top right after I finished it in February 2015. Every one of those 109 circles will have a Spirograph type design.
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​In this series of posts I'll share each motif I quilt and show the rulers I used to get that design. These aren't meant to be tutorials. If you've played with a Spirograph you will be able to figure it out on your own. Today I'm posting my first 6 designs. Only 103 left to go!

Yep. I'm going to call it "Lost My Marbles". I can't think of a better name for the effort that's going into this quilt.

I spent some time Tuesday starting the quilting and as you can see my thread choice was a very bad one. It matches beautifully! It will show great in the dark blocks but the light side of the quilt will look unquilted.

So back to my obscene thread collection to find something else. I have lots of choices! These are the first 3 that I pulled. I love these colors The 2 on the right are acrylic threads from the collection of threads that I bought from Lunn Fabrics years ago when they were closing out these threads. I used some of these threads in Parasol.

Do you see how the thread on this one is really loose?  Have you ever had that happen?

This is how much thread I had to let fall off the cone before I could get it down to something relatively neat and controllable. I don't think it's a problem with the thread, I think it's because I had the cone upside down in the drawer. I haven't paid a lot of attention to how I stored these threads but now that I've gone through the drawer I see that almost half of them were upside down. I've fixed that now.

It's a really pretty pile of thread though!

But after all that I didn't choose any of these 3 threads. I decided on a bright orange that shows even better than in this photo. It's going to even stand out more in the darkest and lightest blocks.

But then I ran into another snag. My ruler foot wobbles left and right a little bit. It has to do with  how tightly the foot can be screwed on and still hop up and down. Michele, from Virginia Longarm, is bringing me a new washer that Innova developed to fix this. 

I thought you might want to know how I'm marking my circles. 
Right after I made this quilt I saw Sue Heinz at  Birds of a Feather and she had these tools. I knew they were exactly what I needed! I can easily divide circles into and multiple of  thirds, fourths and fifths.

So once I get the new washer for the ruler foot I'll be ready to go. I'm going to document every circle that I stitch and will share the rulers that I use for each one as well. But I have to wait until next Saturday to get the washer. I'm going to try to use all of the time between now and then to get everything ready for my classes and booth at Birds of a Feather on February 8 - 11.  During my break times I'll work on some postcards and maybe plan a new quilt.