Month 8 Making More Pinwheels/Starting the Geese

[Barbara B.]

It's time to finish the pinwheel borders, attach them to your quilt, and start the geese. I know some of you have finished the pinwheels already so on to the geese.

My blog with this month's tips: http://bbquiltmaker.blogspot.com/2017/08/halo-star-medallion-month-8.html

The video instructions show Carolyn's tips for paper-piecing the geese borders--I do them just as she does except I don't tape the paper sections together. Take a minute to watch her tips--she really shows how well the Add-a-Quarter ruler works, one of my most favorite tools.

[Jeanne A.]

So I know it's month eight but I'm still on month 5! Did anyone else have a LOT of trouble putting the Flying Geese blocks together to make the border? I just can't seem to make those edges meet nicely. The seams don't nest at all and they look awful after I sew them.
So frustrated! Any tips to make this work?

[Barbara B.]

The curved flying geese blocks do have a lot of seam allowance coming together at the place where the geese meet. If the blocks are cut carefully everything fits at that point. But, yes, there is some bulk there. I pressed those seams open after checking the geese met at that place. I suggest you baste that spot, about 1" of the seam, to be sure you are happy with the connection before you use a regular size stitch. Do this by lengthening your stitch a lot--I use a size 5. Just pin and machine baste that 1" of seam, take it out to see if you are happy with it, then readjust the stitch length to sew the actual seam. It is not fun to rip out small stitches on these beautiful blocks you have worked so hard to create. I do this with any block that has a lot of points coming together, like Lemoyne stars and Feathered stars.

I hope this helps.

[Vernell F.]

I too have finished pinwheels and floaters. So will probably do 2 side borders to get a little head start on Month 9.

[Jeanne A.]

Thank you so much for the advice! I tried the basting and it really helped. Still not perfect but hopefully after a few they will look better.

[Rebecca F.]

After adding floaters and pinwheel borders, my quilt center is 65" which is 1.5" larger than it should be. My flying geese borders finished at 65", too. Oops!

I think I have three options:
[ol]
[li]Put the flying geese on the center without a floater. They would fit perfectly but I don't think I'd like how the two borders would look right next to each other.[/li]
[li]Take off the pinwheels and floaters so I can tighten them up to the correct measurements.[/li]
[li]Add one extra goose to each border. That would give me space to add floaters with minimal effort this month. However, that would probably lead to awkward adjustments when it's time to add the delectable mountain border later.[/li]
[/ol]

Am I missing an option? I can't say I'm excited about taking the pinwheels off to redo them.
Thanks for any advice!
Becky

[Barbara B.]

Becky, you are correct about those 3 options. I agree with you on option 1--no floater= not to my liking either.
Option 2 would work but all that WORK! No, I wouldn't do that either. You could have tightened up the pinwheel borders while they were under construction but now, way too much work.
That leaves option 3. Easy and the best choice. Since you are oversized, it is likely your Delectable Mountains border will be oversized too. This is due to all those seam allowances--being off a "little" all the time means you'll be off a "lot" at the end.
If it makes you feel any better, my center after adding the pinwheels was 64.5", 1" larger than it should be, .5" smaller than yours. I ended up with a .5" floater between the pinwheels and the geese--without adding any extra geese.
If you add one goose you're adding 1.5" to each side so you would only have 2" of "floaters" to fill. You might split that into 2 fabrics as Sue did earlier.
Once the Flying geese borders are in place you'll know the minimum size your Delectable Mountains needs to be. Deal with those then.

So, I would do option 3 and save tomorrow's troubles for tomorrow.
Good luck and let us know how it works out.

[Rebecca F.]

I had braced myself for the labor-intensive option 2. I'm so glad you think Option 3 will work. I thought I was just being lazy! :-) And, I definitely support the principle of saving tomorrow's troubles for tomorrow!

Becky

[Rebecca F.]

Back on August we talked about saving tomorrow's troubles for tomorrow. Tomorrow is finally here.
I pieced my DM border units. They finished at 72 inches instead of 72.5 inches. As I was sewing the block units together, I knew I was going to come up short. In order to get the intersections to match well, I needed to use a generous seam allowance, rather than a scant allowance. I decided matching the intersections was very important so I continued. Now, I have to deal with a DM border and a quilt center that are the same size. Again, I see three options although one is not practical.
[ol]
[li]Go back to fix the pinwheel border and each one thereafter. Ugh! No way.[/li]
[li]Attach the DM border to the quilt center and call it done. It's not hideous, but every other border is separated by a floater so it seems I would be violating a design principle. I had this laid out and my husband said, "Sorry, sweetie. This doesn't work." [/li]
[li]Add a small floater all the way around the center and at the end of each DM border unit. Then, add the star cornerstones. I would end up with a right angle of floater fabric extended into the outer border and around the cornerstones. I am attaching a rough mock-up of what I mean with Sue Garman's drawing from the front of month 9. I know I should have 12 mountains per side but I hope this is good enough to convey my idea. [/li]
[/ol]
I think option three works. I also think I'm going to use a red floater and red binding. My theory is that making it bold will make it look more intentional. I've auditioned the red as well as the darkest of my greens. I think I prefer the red. Before I commit to this, does anyone have another idea?

P.S. I really need to master EQ. I didn't want to learn how to do a medallion layout to do this mock-up. Maybe EQ8 will be easier for this?

[Renata L.]

Becky,
I've never been one to worry about saving time--the seam ripper IS my friend and if that means using to get the result I want, so be it. However, I actually LOVE your option 3: it brings the eye out to the edge of the quilt and back in towards the red floaters. I definitely would go with option 3. Looks like you dodged the redo, and in style!
PS I still love your floater calculator--thank you for making it available to us!

[Barbara B.]

Becky, I love Option 3!

[Rebecca F.]

Renata,

You put such a generous spin on my "design opportunity". Thank you! B) I need to order some red fabric so it'll be a while before I get to finish the quilt. Still, it's nice to have a plan!

I'm not afraid of using my seam ripper either, though taking off all those borders and floaters would have been a chore. When I was joining my Delectable Mountains blocks, one of the seams required four attempts. I had already successfully joined most of the blocks but that pair gave me fits. I was more than a little tempted to just leave it alone but I knew it would annoy me later.

I'm glad you like the floater calculator. I like using it and thought others would, too!

Becky

[Rebecca F.]

It turns out Option 3 didn't work. I even tried something I called 3a. The red extender I needed to put on needed to be wider than the floater. It stuck out like a sore thumb. I replaced it with a white extender thinking it would be okay if it was less prominent. I didn't like that all! Where the DM borders should have made a nice straight line on the diagonal at each corner, they just missed. It was awful.

I love Sue Garman's design and have been pleased with my progress so far. I just couldn't stand the thought of ruining the final result due to laziness. So, I spent all of Wednesday and quite a few more hours last night bonding my seam ripper. I took off the borders and floaters down to the last border of HSTs. I will spend today (and perhaps a good part of this weekend) putting it back together. I have plenty of fabric to remake the floaters. At least I don't need to remake any borders! :-)

[Sue S.]

I admire you Becky. It is a huge job you have undertaken to remove what you have sewn together. My heart goes out to you, but you must know yourself quite well. You would never look at that quilt the same way. I am plodding along not anywhere near as far as many, and making very good friends with my seam ripper. We are on a first-name basis: it is Florence. I am eager to see the finished quilt. So many are getting close...I will get there. It is not a race, like Barbara says.

[Rebecca F.]

Thank you for the words of encouragement. At this point, I am again ready to add the DM borders. That will have to wait until tomorrow, though. I’ve had enough for today.