Dotted

There's got to be an easier way - this journal-quilt piece took about 8 hours. (it now has a neat satinstitch border.) After free machining the big circles I cut out the centres - of some - to reveal the shiny fabric, but then their edges looked messy, so more machining was needed to hide the raggedness...

And then there had to be tiny circles between the bigger ones; there seemed no end to that, and I can see several places that still need a dot or two.... There's some experimentation with cutting out the entire centre and covering the hole with thread, as well as with cutting the backing away from some of the circles. Those techniques make it very tactile - you can hold it with both hands and then you suddenly come to the different thicknesses. The back is felted grey wool, with the threads still in place from moving from one circle to another (and two colours of bobbin thread) -

Here's what inspired this - "Geometric 2007" by Eileen Goldenberg, who works in encaustics.

After seeing her work in the "abstract and geometric" show on the website of Woman Made gallery in Chicago, I just had to do some more circles. Somehow my circles went their own way, rather than staying in nice neat rows.
Next time I'll cut the holes first, before layering and stitching. The layering could be exciting, and goodness knows what could happen with the stitching.