Circle the Intersection for Perfect Results

5 pointed star variation

Circle the Intersection

Every intersection in your quilt blocks can be PERFECT when you use a simple hand piecing technique to “circle the intersection.”

It allows you to brag about your precise results as much as you like and be confident that your friends will be impressed.

Circle the intersection

I circle intersections routinely when I am hand piecing but <gasp> it can also be used to tighten up machine pieced intersections after the fact. Cool, eh?

crosshairs from Inklingo

We love crosshairs printed with Inklingo!

Circling the Intersection highlights the advantages of having crosshairs to mark the seam endings on all our Inklingo shapes.

I demonstrate “circling the intersection” in this short video. (4 minutes, 2012)

As it shows in the video, when you get to an intersection pass the needle through the crosshairs one pair of seam allowances at a time, all the way around, and then continue along the seam as usual.

This technique is illustrated in The Inklingo Handbook too.

Inklingo on the Quilt Show

I also demonstrated how to circle the intersection on The Quilt Show with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims last year. Alex said she had never seen it before.

If you are not a member at The Quilt Show, you can sign up for a free 7-day trial to watch this one-hour show, # 2911, and any others.

I have been teaching this technique for more than 20 years, since at least 1999, and it is illustrated in detail in my Quilted Diamonds books (2002 and 2004) and in the Quilted Diamonds 2 hand piecing lesson DVD. It works. (Both Quilted Diamonds books are still available.)

Quilted Diamonds is “pre-Inklingo” so in those days we marked the crosshairs manually. It’s even better when we print them precisely.

circle the intersection

This same technique works for any intersection like the 6-pointed Stars in the video and also 8-pointed stars, Castle Wall, Cleopatra’s Fan and many, many others, thanks to Inklingo’s precision crosshairs.

As I told Alex, I just wish there was a catchier name than “circling the intersection” for such a wonderful sewing method.

Should we call Circle the Intersection the “Ring of Thread?”

Sing along with me and The Man in Black, okay?

Thread is a lovely thing
And it makes a nice tight ring
‘Round on lines desired
I sew into a star admired

I sew into a lovely ring of thread
I go round, round, round and the points get tighter
And it works, works, works
The ring of thread, the ring of thread

(instrumental break, time to take a few stitches)

I sew into a lovely ring of thread
I go round, round, round and the points get tighter
And it works, works, works
The ring of thread, the ring of thread

Nice tight stars are sweet
When points like ours meet
It’s easy with Inklingo lines
Oh, and the points are fine

I sew into a lovely ring of thread
I go round, round, round and the points get tighter
And it works, works, works
The ring of thread, the ring of thread

I sew into a lovely ring of thread
I go round, round, round and the points get tighter
And it works, works, works
The ring of thread, the ring of thread

And it works, works, works
The ring of thread, the ring of thread
The ring of thread, the ring of thread…

print on fabric 5-pointed stars

The new 5-Pointed Stars are perfect for this and there is an illustration showing which intersections I circle to get perfect points on the stars under a tab on that page.

Free Diamond Triangle Square shape collection Inklingo

Try it now with the 8-pointed stars and other variations in the FREE Diamond Triangle Square shape collection.

Love the lines. Quilt more!

8 thoughts on “Circle the Intersection for Perfect Results”

  1. I learned the technique many years ago in a hand piecing class from Sharon Stroud. She called it “circling the drain”. But then we wanted to know if quilters in the Southern Hemisphere circle in the opposite direction.

    Reply
    • Sharon Stroud is lovely! We connected a long time ago. I might be mistaken but I think she may have learned this method from my Quilted Diamonds books. Like the name! LOL

      Reply
  2. Circling the intersection makes a huge difference and takes so little time! I automatically do it now on any intersection! It was one of the most valuable tips I learned from you!!

    Reply

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