Halo Star Medallion--Month 11

[Barbara B.]

I am in Houston at the International Quilt Festival under mid-next week but I wanted you know the Month 11 blog posted yesterday.

Learn a different way to make Delectable Mountain blocks.

http://bbquiltmaker.blogspot.com/2017/11/halo-star-medallion-month-11.html

[Barbara B.]

Double post that I am trying to delete.

[Barbara B.]

Help! My quilt center is too large! After dding my straight Flying Geese, my center measures 72 1/2” and this is what the Delectable Mountains borders are supposed to measure, so I have no space for a floater. After the DM border, my plan was to add an extra navy border, betweem 4” and 6” to enlarge the entire quilt,

The problem is in my String of pearls blocks that are too large. I can rip it back to there, tighten my sem allowances, and redo, but I’d obviously like to avoid that. Can i make my DM borders a bit longer, enough for a half inch floater? Any other suggestions?

[Barbara B.]

First, let me say, your quilt is beautiful.

When you calculated the size of the floater that joins the straight flying geese to your quilt center did your flying geese side borders measure 65" and the top and bottom borders measure 71"? Those are the exact measurements for those borders in a perfect world. (Mine was 71.5"). If they were correct, your last floater must be too wide. If they were longer than that, that would explain how your quilt is now 72.5". It's not impossible to gain that extra 1.5" in the DM borders--that would require about an 1/8" decrease in each seam of those borders--that means all the points wouldn't meet exactly perfectly but I don't think that 1/8" difference would be too noticeable. You'll have to decide how perfect it has to be from here out. If the flying geese borders were the correct size, you could take them off and resize that last dark floater.

It's still a beautiful quilt!

[Barbara B.]

Thank you Barbara, for both the guidance and the compliment. My error was made in the string of pearls, not theflyng geese. I think I had to add one flyng geese (goose?) unit and did so without considering the implications for the DM blocks. Lesson learned.
Could you tell me about the changes made in Sheila’s quilt from your group? I may have enough focus fabric to make 8 more DM blocks. Could I not add another round before the DM’s seeing as I was going to add a solid border last anyway? As I write this, I think ripping sounds like less work. As much as I have enjoyed this project, I’m ready to move on.
Thanks again. I will look at it again today.

[Barbara B.]

OK, now I understand. The extra goose is what happened. Wish I had thought to suggest Sheila's solution--that is perfect for you as you planned to make the quilt bigger anyway. You are correct--you have to add DM in pairs--so you will need 2 additional Delectable Mountain 6" blocks for each of the 4 borders. Make those four borders and use them to determine the size of the large floater/border that will go between your 72.5" center now and those DM borders. You are increasing the DM border by 12" so that should give you the large size quilt you want.

We will look forward to seeing your quilt! You are close to the finish line now and will have a wonderful quilt when done.