Marie's Optical Illusion Rule 5

I'm finally finished with my block #5.  This was definitely a learning experience for me.  I had never machine pieced a circle before so it was fun to try and it and succeed.  The last time I needed a circle in a quilt I ended up appliqueing it because I couldn't get it to look right.  I won't be intimidated by circles any more.

I also haven't tried free motion embroidery before and it is fun, but I can see that I could use a whole lot of practice to get very good at it. 

I made two different blocks and put a circle and free motion embroidery in both of them.  In the bottom block the embroidery is the lines on the ball.  By the way, that's my version of the New Years Eve ball at Times Square.  The embroidery in the top block is the shadow of the ball.  I'm not sure if it looks like a shadow or a real amateur trying to do free motion embroidery.

These blocks took me a lot of time.  I think my creativity nearly exceeded my ability.    My inspiration came from "3 Dimensional Design" by Katie Pasquini.  The quilts pictured in her book are very large quilts and I'm trying to make very small blocks so it is rather difficult, but I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out. 

Here is my quilt so far. 

Now I guess I'd better get busy and see what I can do with Rule # 6.