Many people ask me about making round quilts, and there are a few tips and tricks to make your round quilts turn out beautifully. I’ll share some tips below with a project I recently made. I found this pattern called “Kisses from Heaven” and fell in love with the adorable snowman. I bought the pattern, and after making it, wanted to share a few ideas with you.

The pattern has you start out with a square piece of fabric for your background, 44” square. Then they show you how to draw a round circle on that square. The next instruction is to cut out that circle. Here is where I made some changes.

Instead of cutting out the circle at this time, instead I went ahead and ironed on all the pieces for the snowman, scarves, and snowflakes. I used a blanket stitch around all the appliqué pieces. After I was finished with the blanket stitching, I quilted the project.

The reason I did not cut the circle to begin with was because I knew that when I got ready to quilt, it would be easier to quilt a square piece of fabric (rather than a circular one). After I quilted the project, then I cut my circle and got ready to finish it with binding.

Tips for Making Your Own Binding

Anytime you bind a project (like a quilt, blanket, wall hanging, etc.) that is a square or rectangle, you can cut your binding straight across your fabric—from selvage to selvage.

But anytime you have a curve to bind, you have to cut your binding on the bias. In the fabric kit, after you cut your square for this project, you should have about ¾ yard left of that fabric to use for binding.

You can make your own bias binding. I start by folding one side over at a 45 degree angle. I cut this fabric into 2 pieces by cutting on the fold.

Take one of those pieces and measure 2 ¼”  from the cut edge. With a rotary cutter, cut several 2 ¼” wide strips. Sew your pieces together to make one long length of binding.

How Do You Know How Much Binding to Cut?

Good question, and perfect timing since I’m posting this on Pi Day . When you need to know the edge measurement (perimeter) around a circle, this is how you figure it. You take the diameter and take it times 3.14 (the mathematical number for pi). That will tell you how much binding it will take to go around your snowman circle. You will need a little extra for overlap when you sew the beginning to the end of your binding.

One thing I love about this project is that you could cut a hole in the middle and make it into a tree skirt. What an adorable idea for a snowman-themed Christmas tree! Or a fun excuse to keep your Christmas tree up through the winter.

I loved how my fabric colors all turned out, so I decided to put some complete quilt kits together for you as well! You can find the complete fabric kits and patterns in my eBay store. Happy Sewing!