The pattern for this gorgeous 15″ Chakra (Wheel) circle block set in an 18″ square is foundation paper-pieced and much easier to sew than it looks! And there are so many ways to use it!
The Chakra Block Pattern is now available on my Madspatch Ecwid Store! Check Link below.
The Chakra (Wheel) Block from my Dreamcatcher Quilt has to be my absolute favourite. For one, it is a tribute to my country, India! Secondly, it is designed by me, not based on any other quilt block that I have seen.
Why not celebrate India by making your own Chakra? The pattern is now available on my Madspatch Ecwid store! It is surprisingly easy to piece the paper-foundation paper piecing way, and assembly is also simple enough. The half-circles could be appliqued, fused or even omitted if you don’t feel up to it!
The block, a 15” square set in an 18” circle was designed as the tenth block in the Dreamcatcher Round the Year BOM quilt. However, like the other blocks of my quilt, it works great as a stand-alone small quilt! Here are some great options for you!
You could use just the centre circle as a great-looking round table runner.
The Chakra Block in its original Dreamcatcher by Dusk colours
Make it in the original indigo and white of our flag and bind with a green and saffron double binding to make it look special!
The Indigo and white Ashok Wheel round table runner with a tricolour double binding!
Substitute the colours on the pattern and make a couple for a pair of gorgeous tricolour cushion covers.
A pair of cushions in the saffron, green and white of the Indian tricolour
…Or you could combine with another two blocks from my store, the Lollipop Candy and Dahlia; add a 1.5” border and sashing to make a table runner 21”X 60”!
Or perhaps join four blocks two by two to make a stunning wall-hanging!
The blocks are 6″ square and except for a few, foundation paper pieced by me. I drafted all the patterns for FPP on the free Quilt Assistant software, based on patterns in Liz Lois’s book, which contains only line drawings of the finished blocks.
Most of the fabric used is Summer Breeze 3 (with a fat quarter bundle of matching solids) by Moda Fabrics, and the Dutch Garden 2 Collection by Boundless Fabric. I also used a couple FQs in blues and greens plus a jelly roll of yellows I had in my stash.
Nearly Insane Block 40
Number of pieces: 29
Level of Difficulty: Easy. This is one block where I made some changes from Salinda’s original block, adding those diagonal strips in the corner pieces. Now I wish I hadn’t.
Technique: Foundation paper pieced (FPP)
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 40
Nearly Insane Block 41
Number of pieces: 31
Level of Difficulty: Moderate. This basket block was another which would have been easier to English paper piece or even machine piece with nesting seams. But it gave me a great opportunity to use up that pretty soft blue, lage floral for the background. All in all, a very pretty block!
Technique: Foundation paper pieced with handle of the basket appliqued.
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 41
Nearly Insane Block 42
Number of pieces: 120
Level of Difficulty: Difficult…hmm…moderate? 120 pieces in a 6″ x 6″ block and so many points! I love this particular block and have made it into an 18″x 18″ cushion cover too!
Technique: Foundation Paper Piecing
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 42
Nearly Insane Block 43
Number of pieces: 88 pieces
Level of Difficulty: Difficult, as a lone star block is. So many y-seams and then the 8 seams meeting at a point in the centre…I tried (unsuccessfully) fussy cutting the strips for the diamond pieces, succeeding only in the centre.
(Arguably) the prettiest block in the quilt!
Technique: Strip pieced the eight bigger diamonds and then machine pieced them together. Also machine pieced the 4 corners and the triangles to the star.
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 43
Nearly Insane Block 44
Number of pieces: 84
Level of Difficulty: Truly insane block! With four 8-point stars and 32 y-seams! And to add to my woes, I kept losing the pieces, despite doing my best to keep track of them.
Technique: Foundation paper pieced the centre strips and English paper pieced the stars.
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 44
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 45
Number of pieces:44
Level of Difficulty: Moderate, because of the huge(!) 1″ pieces.
Technique: Foundation paper pieced (FPP) and machine pieced.
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 45
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 46
Number of pieces:37
Level of Difficulty: Easy–another log cabin block, this time with a star in the centre! (Compare with Block 11 and Block 76)
Technique: Regular machine piecing
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 46
Would you say this was the prettiest row so far? In case you have not seen my earlier updates, click the links for each row below:
The blocks are 6″ square and except for a few, foundation paper pieced by me. I drafted all the patterns for FPP on the free Quilt Assistant software, based on patterns in Liz Lois’s book, which contains only line drawings of the finished blocks.
Most of the fabric used is Summer Breeze 3 (with a fat quarter bundle of matching solids) by Moda Fabrics, and the Dutch Garden 2 Collection by Boundless Fabric. I also used a couple FQs in blues and greens plus a jelly roll of yellows I had in my stash.
Nearly Insane Block 34
Number of pieces: 33
Level of Difficulty: Easy star block. Salinda has a number of these; however, she added interest by sewing up different centres for each. On my part, I did some fussy cutting to prettify them. (The temptation to substitute these blocks with more interesting and complicated ones was great but I did manage to resist it).
Technique: Foundation paper pieced (FPP).
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 34
Nearly Insane Block 35
Number of pieces: 64
Level of Difficulty: Moderate. I do not like to foundation paper piece hour-glass QST blocks ( nor pinwheels, for that matter!) They are much easier to machine piece with nesting seams.
Technique: Foundation paper pieced.
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 35
Nearly Insane Block 36
Number of pieces: 79
Level of Difficulty: Hmmm…moderate? 79 pieces in a 6″ x 6″ block! The four-patches are also easier machine-pieced than foundation pieced. Lots of triangles and lots of points to match.
Technique: Foundation Paper Piecing
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 36
Nearly Insane Block 37
Number of pieces: 97
Level of Difficulty: Moderate. Though it has 97 pieces, not too many points to match; it is quite a pretty block too.
Technique: Foundation paper pieced (FPP)
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 37
Nearly Insane Block 38
Number of pieces: 45
Level of Difficulty: Easy, easy! The fussy cutting and high contrast make it quite a delight to look at!
Technique: Foundation paper pieced (FPP)
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 38
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 39
Number of pieces: 29
Level of Difficulty: Easy and whimsical! Another one where I used up my larger prints.
Technique: Foundation paper pieced (FPP)
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 39
I think I may be able to get back to quilting pretty soon. My sciatica seems to have improved dramatically with the Kerala Ayurveda Oil Treatment I am taking! In the meanwhile, in case you have missed my earlier updates, click the links for each row below:
My sciatica pain is not yet gone, and that keeps me away from the sewing machine! So I continue my series of posts on the progress of my Nearly Insane Quilt, based on a 19th century quilt by Salinda Rupp... I have now less than 20 blocks to finish! The blocks are all set on point, with 7 and 6 blocks in the alternating rows.
The blocks are 6″ square and except for a few, foundation paper pieced by me. I drafted all the patterns for FPP on the free Quilt Assistant software, based on patterns in Liz Lois’s book, which contains only line drawings of the finished blocks.
Most of the fabric used is Summer Breeze 3 (with a fat quarter bundle of matching solids) by Moda Fabrics, and the Dutch Garden 2 Collection by Boundless Fabric. I also used a couple FQs in blues and greens plus a jelly roll of yellows I had in my stash.
These are the seven blocks from the fifth row :
Nearly Insane Block 27
Number of pieces: 16
Level of Difficulty: Difficult. A number of y-seams there plus the eight seams meeting n the centre! I also attempted some fussy cutting there! The block could probably have been prettier with more of a contrast; but I do like the soft colours too.
Technique: English paper pieced and hand-pieced
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 27
Nearly Insane Block 28
Number of pieces: 69
Level of Difficulty: Easy… despite the fair number of pieces. Again I did some fussy cutting for the corner pansies.
Technique: Foundation paper pieced (FPP).
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 28
Nearly Insane Block 29
Number of pieces: 45
Level of Difficulty: Easy. Took me longer to cut the striped triangles ‘just so’ than to piece the block.
Technique: Foundation Paper Piecing
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 29
Nearly Insane Block 30
Number of pieces: 34
Level of Difficulty: Easy. What a delightfully whimsical block this is too. I quite love it.
Technique: Foundation paper pieced (FPP)
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 30
Nearly Insane Block 31
Number of pieces: 24
Level of Difficulty: Easy. Not my favourite block and I just might end up re-doing this one. I do believe it needs more contrast to work.
Technique: Foundation paper pieced (FPP)
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 31
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 32
Number of pieces: 58
Level of Difficulty: Moderate: Has a lot of points to match, so I would call it moderate. The plentiful half square and quater square triangles also meant there were several templates in the foundation paper piecing pattern. But it a pretty block, typically Ruppish, where she put together whatever she had at hand to make it add up to 6″!
Technique: Foundation paper pieced (FPP)
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 32
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 33
Number of pieces: 28
Level of Difficulty: Easy but pretty. The larger pieces gave me the opportunity to use the larger prints from the Summer Breeze 3 collection.
Technique: Foundation paper pieced (FPP)
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 33
In case you have missed my earlier updates, you can see
Here come the blocks from the fourth row of my Nearly Insane Quilt, based on a 19th century quilt by Salinda Rupp... I have now less than 20 blocks to finish and I have started sharing the finished blocks in a series of posts, row by row! The blocks are all set on point, with 7 and 6 blocks in the alternating rows.
The blocks are 6″ square and except for a few, foundation paper pieced by me. I drafted all the patterns for FPP on the free Quilt Assistant software, based on patterns in Liz Lois’s book, which contains only line drawings of the finished blocks.
Most of the fabric used is Summer Breeze 3 (with a fat quarter bundle of matching solids) by Moda Fabrics, and the Dutch Garden 2 Collection by Boundless Fabric. I also used a couple FQs in blues and greens plus a jelly roll of yellows I had in my stash.
These blocks are particularly pretty; I think Salinda was becoming more and more adventurous as she made newer blocks.
Nearly Insane Block 21
Number of pieces: 25
Level of Difficulty: Easy, but isn’t it pretty? I enjoyed fussy cutting those beautiful pansies.
Technique: Foundation paper pieced (FPP)
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 21
Nearly Insane Block 22
Number of pieces: 133
Level of Difficulty: Difficult… it did have a lot of points to match…And one thing I would never recommend is making a pinwheel with paper piecing!Not only did I join a couple of them the wrong way, there is such a huge bulk in the centre that it is impossible to get a nice point there. FPP is also wasted on 4 patches! Easier piecedthe regular way.
(Did you notice I actually tried to fussy cut those flying geese?)
Technique: Foundation paper pieced (FPP). I recommend regular machine piecing for everything but the flying geese !
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 22
Nearly Insane Block 23
Number of pieces: 45
Level of Difficulty: Moderate, only because those narrow 1/4″ strips were so fiddly!
Technique: English Paper Piecing and hand-piecing, as I did not have a sewing machine when I did this one!
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 23
Nearly Insane Block 24
Number of pieces: 89
Level of Difficulty: Difficult for two reasons. Firstly, lots of points to match and secondly, one of the more difficult ones to draft as well as piece, as the flying geese are not all the same 1:2 ratio!
Technique: Foundation paper pieced (FPP)
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 24
Nearly Insane Block 25
Number of pieces: 87
Level of Difficulty: A very unusual block! The centre 3″ x 2″ portion contains such tiny pieces as compared to the huge outer pieces!
Technique: Foundation paper pieced (FPP)
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 25
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 26
Number of pieces: 32
Level of Difficulty: Easy.
Technique: Foundation paper pieced (FPP)
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 26
In case you have missed my earlier updates, you can see
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