I'm Working it Out (aka I need your help!!!) GillyWhig Quilt

It's sewn and basted!

I'm so excited by it!

Don't worry, that long edge (the hypotenuse, you could say) is not supposed to be straight.  It's for the edge, which will be trimmed into a circle.

All my huge chunks sewn together.  I decided to go for the random color wheel.  I found that when I had it in a rainbow formation, the orange/red/yellow side was really heavy.  The huge orange sun-gig in the center probably doesn't help!  So I went more random and I think it's much more balanced now.

All sewn together.  Officially a flimsy!  Also definitely more of an octagon right now.  

So how do you get a circle?  Make your own compass out of string, a safety pin and a pen.  I tied a length of string onto the end of a safety pin and pinned it to the center of the quilt (on the wrong side).

I then measured out how long I could make radius of the circle and marked it on the string.  (As you can see, I had to shorten it a few times because I started on a longer side I guess.  I had given myself extra room, so it was ok.)

I proceeded to mark lines as I slowly moved the 'compass' around the quilt.  The hardest part was maintaining consistent pull on the string (since it was embroidery floss, it had some give to it and the fabric easily pulled up off the floor).

But I finally got all the way around and ended in just about the right spot.  Not too shabby, eh?

Then just cut on the dotted line!

And you get this beauty!  It looks so awesome as a circle!!! (Can you tell I'm a little excited by it!?)  It's not a perfect circle, I'm sure, but I didn't measure, so in my heart it's perfect.

I just finished basting it (though I have a small section on the back to smooth out.)  AAAAAHH! I don't have any pictures of the back!  Next time, I promise!

So now, the quilting question.  I was thinking of doing spirals coming from all the pinwheels and overlapping a little in the blue around the center gig.  Do I use one neutral thread color or do a thread to match each whirligig?  What do you think?  HELP!!  Does the decision making ever end??   (Though I do already have the binding bought, cut and pressed, so that is one done deal.)

See you soon!

(...with some great quilting ideas?)