In 2017, I decided to try another daily project. (I once tried the 100 day project, but only made it to Day 10…!) Inspired by some wonderful circle quilts by Sophie @lunalovequilts, I thought I could commit to creating one squircle a day for 365 days. I’d always wanted to try needleturn applique, so this seemed like a simple shape to practice that skill.
It was through Sophie that I also found the #quilty365 page on Instagram, and a little more research lead me to this post by Audrey of Quilty Folk.
I decided to make it scrappy, and since I have over 25 years of scraps, I tried not to duplicate any fabrics. It was very entertaining to pair up interesting and unlikely fabric combinations for each block. (The background squares were cut at 4 inches, and the squircles were made from a 2.5 inch square.)
Each month I sewed the blocks into nine patch blocks. I didn’t want to have all of them to assemble at the end of the year! When the small design wall was full, we made a larger design wall. Now I was able to lay out the blocks the full width of the quilt and I began to assemble the nine patches into rows. (Even though I wasn’t doing much manipulating of the blocks for design purposes, I needed to have the blocks up so I could see which fabrics had been used.)
For the most part, I completed a squircle a day. There were a couple of times that I got behind, like when I left my hand sewing kit in a hotel in Nebraska on our road trip to Paducah! But whenever I got off track, I tried to catch up as soon as possible.
My goal was to have the top assembled by midnight on New Year’s Eve and I am proud of myself for finishing with a few hours to spare! To make my layout (18 blocks x 21 blocks) work, I needed to make 13 extra squircles. That makes a total of 378 squircles x 2 background fabrics = 756 different scraps used. (Ooops, subtract 2 because a couple of duplicates sneaked in when I wasn’t looking!)
2018 brings an opportunity to do something new with squircles, so stay tuned to see version 2.0, using solids and pieced background blocks. So far, so good at completing a squircle a day in this new year.
penny lane quilts 
FABULOUS and so inspiring ❤️Thanks
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Thank YOU!
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Love the word squircle
A great achievement to have kept that up ! Looks great as well
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Thanks! “Squircle” is a fun word to say. This was an entertaining daily project and I am definitely enjoying the new version for 2018.
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I really love this! I’ll be watching as you create your new version this year…
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Oh, I am really having fun with the new version!
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Wow congratulations on getting the top done in the same year you created all the blocks. I look forward to seeing how version 2.0 evolves!
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It was one of the few projects I kept up with in 2017, so it felt good to meet my goal! I’m only a week into 2018, but I’m pretty excited to see how this one evolves, too.
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This looks so wonderful all together! I never realized how small the blocks are. I just did the math though and it will be a lovely generous lap size. Do you know how you are going to quilt it?
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Aha! That is the question of the day! I would like to stitch straight lines on 1/4 ” on either side of the seam lines (but the quilt is too large to do that on my little machine) and I want to hand quilt the squircles. So I am trying to decide if I could fmq the background on the midarm and hand quilt the squircles. Not sure what design I would use for the free motion and if I am brave enough to tackle it. Any suggestions?
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I must tell you how fabulous this quilt is! Love it very much and am really looking forward to the next one, which – I think – is even more spectacular than the first (if that is possible!)
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Thank you so much! I am getting excited about quilting the first one, and the second one is half pieced, as of today. Happy summer solstice!
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Thank you! I am getting excited about putting the next one together, although I imagine I will be arranging and rearranging them on the design wall for awhile!
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