Month 1 The Halo Star Block

[Eileen K.]

eileenkny: Which triangle? There is 2 1/2 cut on the diagonal and 2 3/4 cut on the diagonal. The white has two different sizes. I cut the sizes per the directions and did not have any issues.

[Heather P.]

Eileenkny - not sure which triangles you're referring to, but I did notice that sometimes it is the SIDES of the triangles that are positioned to cover the area. It can seem a bit confusing to set them this way, but a dry run by folding a quarter inch of fabric and placing it in position before stitching helps to troubleshoot whether the fit will be right or not.
The larger white triangles fit on the outside ends of units 17, 16, 15, 2, and 6.
I was careful to fold back the paper to trim the last sewn seam before trying to place the next triangle. Most critical of all is pinning the intersections of the star points when assembling the final sets. That one gave me the most trouble.

[Rob H.]

Eleenkny

I had issues as well. I cut all the pieces per the instructions using a scan n cut. And i had issues. What I did when i found a piece that did not fit properly, I used scraps from the cutting to cover.

Used my add a quarter ruler to get that perfect seam allowance. Made life easier just using 2 1/2 to 3 inch strips and the ruler perfect fits.

But my pieces do not line up perfectly. Thinking about making the block but will see

But what helpede the most old.hotel room key to fold the paper on and the add a quarter ruler.

[Rob H.]

Anabeth
Your block is beautiful. How did you do the center?
Cindy (cmd77)

[Anabeth D.]

Rick-rack and embroidery floss.

[Linda B.]

That product bled on another project I made to try it out. I would not use it again!

[Eileen K.]

PtboGrandma, sorry to have been slow in answering. I have to pull out my pieces. I cut the 2 sizes of white triangles. I'll have to check and see what I'm doing wrong.

[Pamela N.]

Hi Eileenkny, I really struggled with Month 1 BOM, as I have little to no experience in paper piecing. I remembered I had a DVD "Carol Doak teaches you to paper piece" which I had never watched, and I found the lessons really helped me. To be honest had I not watched Carol's DVD, I would probably have given up and used all the fabric I bought for applique. I am challenging myself to do paper piecing :S
Warm wishes Pam (in Scotland)

[Susan M.]

Whew! I just finished Block 1. I've been quilting for 20 years and this is THE MOST DIFFICULT BLOCK I'VE EVER DONE!

My block turned out 16 inches UNTIL I spritzed it with Best Press and pressed all million of those seams FLAT. I use Sally Collins technique which I learned from DVD here on the site. She presses seams then uses a book to weight them down while they cool. I instead use a wooden clapper. Guess what? After doing that my block measures 16 1/2 inches and is perfectly square.

[Eileen K.]

I have that dvd! I'll watch it tomorrow.

[Linda B.]

Love your block. I also practice that tip from Sally Collins. I keep a heavy paperweight on my ironing board!

[Susan M.]

Don't worry. I think the narrow borders can be adjusted to fix that. Also give it another good press and make sure all your seam allowances are very flat. It made 1/2 inch difference in mine when I did that.

[Ann V.]

Mine is 15-3/4. I'm making the floater boarder bigger so I can end up with 17.5"
My small half square blocks measure 1", so I'm not sure how this happened, as I used the paper piecing and it all measured correctly.

[Ann V.]

Here I am starting January near the end of February and have a question. I purchased the kit and was confident I sorted the fabrics but am finding pretty low contrast between fabric E and F. Fabric E is green solid and I have fabric F as the geometric star type print (Olives Garden). I'm going to hate getting this medallion done only to find the contrast isn't enough. As the original is made from different fabrics I took a look and the contrast just seems greater. Any thoughts from others using the kit?

[Ann V.]

I'm finally putting month one block together. My question is when you put each of the sections together, did you press the seams open?
Cindy (cmd77)