I decided to try inset circles – an extension of Drunkard’s Path (a square with a contrasting pie-shaped piece in one corner. With an inset circle you cut a background square then remove a circle; cut a contrasting circle 1/2″ larger in diameter, then carefully line up a few markings and inset by sewing a 1/4″ seam. When pressed you get a pretty good inset circle. (These two blocks are 9 1/2″.)

I’m playing around with this idea in a number of ways. In the first block (left) I created a background from two pieces of fabric, cut the circle from the centre of the block, then inset a strong contrasting circle. In the second block (right) I offset the piecing seam for the background as well as the centre of the circle (which in this case was the offcut from the first block!).

I’m playing around with scraps – just to see what happens. I had a better idea of how to manage the fabric when sewing the second block. I need more practice. I want to cut my circle insets from pieced fabric assembled using curved seams. In block #2 the circle was pieced across the diagonal simply because that was how I’d assembled the first block background.

My next experiment will be to piece the background slightly offset, but the make a more intricately pieced fabric for the circle. We’ll see how that goes.

I’m not sure whether I’m working on a quilt or a fibre art piece – I will have a better idea once I’ve made several inset circle blocks!