MONTH 3 — Show Your Progress Here

[Barbara B.]

Please use this Topic to share your progress.

[Helen W.]

The Quilt Police are after me for speeding ahead. I will try to contain my eagerness in the months ahead. Sure having
fun. HelenW

[Marilyn M.]

Looking fabulous.....beautiful adaptation of Sarah's pattern! Love your colours as well.

I love it! Wondering where did you get the pattern for the coneflowers?

[Helen W.]

For my coneflowers, I took a couple pieces of vellum that you can see thru, and traced the space
I wanted to fill. Then made a copy of the quilt pattern, cut out one coneflower, which was 1 inch in size. I enlarged that 400% which made it 4 inches wide. I enlarged that one to the point is was
filling the size I wanted. Then printed on freezer paper for my pattern. It is not perfect, my 26 inch
center area, is slightly larger, but I made my whole cloth background larger in case I needed it. I have resized the next border to 3 inches instead of 4 which will
get me back to where it should be. I use the BOM's to stretch my ability to adapt patterns. For me
it is great fun!!!
I just realized while writing this that I could have taken that 1 inch coneflower and imported into my
EQ8 software as a photo, then enlarged it to 9 inches wide and just printed it out on freezer paper.
I am very unconventional when it comes to the way I do things. The Quilt Police would put me away for life. HelenW

[lholzhu]

Here is my Month 3 block. I am holding off 2 leaves each section until coneflowers are done.
I really enjoyed Sarah’s appliqué video and making the points in the leaves. This worked very well for me.
Happy Quilting to all!

[Helen W.]

I like how you used the darker purple for the larger circles and then the pops of color fo the smaller
ones. It makes the hollyhocks look like they are radiating out from the center. Very pretty.HelenW

[Helen W.]

On a roll. Just keep moving on. HelenW

Beautiful!!!

[Carol G.]

Here's my month 3. Saving a few leaves as suggested until after the coneflower petals/leaves are attached. My tiniest circles make me think of oyster crackers LOL I did get better the more I did.

New to applique, so I'm wondering how you stop the edges from fraying as you work on the applique?

[Helen W.]

Carol, Your quilt is coming along beautifully. Are you doing turned edge appliqué or raw edge fusible, or needle turn? My quilt just above yours on this page is raw edge fusible. I do a 1.0- 1.0 zig zag and
then cover over that with a twisted thread chain stitch. Batiks are better about not fraying, but flannels that I am using for this quilt fray a lot. I starched the fabric before putting the steam a seam on it. That helps some. I can't see any fraying on your circles, so I assume you are doing needle turn
or turned edge. It is looking good. HelenW

[Carol G.]

Helen On my tiniest circles, I did needle turn. On the larger ones, I did turned edge. I guess I'm doing a little bit of it all because my stems are machine appliqued LOL The fraying I am getting is on the 10.5" fabric square. It isn't horrible, but it might make 1/16" shortage.
Your blocks are beautiful!

[Helen W.]

Carol, When you get ready to sew your blocks together, you could make a template the size of the finished block without seam allowance. Center the finished size template on the back, mark the
stitching lines with a Frixtion pen. It will be perfect size and any fraying loss will be in the seam allowance, and the block
will be perfect. If you just stitch the normal 1/4 on your blocks, then the loss of size will be in the
finished block, not the seam allowance. I do this all the time, because applique pull up the background fabric a bit, and you can lose maybe 1/8 inch. That is why I also, alway cut the back
ground bigger then trim to exact size using a paper template when I am done with the block.
HelenW

[Jana B.]

Month 3 done.

[Joy G.]

I am a needle turn applique fan, so am really enjoying this beautiful design. For the stems I scored and trimmed my strips and then put them through the Clover tool. Worked quite well for me. I left off some leaves as suggested. Stitching around circle templates, drawing up and then ironing the edge worked best for me; even the little ones.
Looking forward to the next step.
Joy

[Gloria V]

Finished with month 3. All of the leaves are done but waiting to piece in coneflowers before attaching the rest.

[Deb B.]

[NinaMarie]

Month 3 done. It's all hand applique. I ended up doing the tin foil method on the tiniest of the circles since my first one needle turned was so terrible! I put 4 leaves on per block and will put the last two next month (just in case). Little by little, I'm getting my applique chops back!

[Helen W.]

Hi NinaMarie, Your progress is looking great. I saw your blogspot listed at the bottom on your post on rusty pins in your glue. I went to your site and really enjoyed your posts. I saw where you put your intentions out there for getting involved in the TQS BOM . I am just the opposite of you. You said you
were going to follow the pattern exactly, no exceptions. I use the BOM to take a concept and then
change it out to be what I would have done using just the framework of designer. It is all so much
fun. HelenW Harrison Idaho.

[NinaMarie]

Hi Helen, I'm glad you like my blog. Thanks! There will always be a mixture of art, quilts, traditional and contemporary there. Normally, I do all my own original work. I mean truly, I can't even remember when I actually even tried to follow a pattern. So I thought I would give the BOM to hone up some rusty traditional skills. You never know when you're going to find a new technique that works for you, right?!

[Kati]

I survived the circles!!! My biggest challenge was to pick the colours and fabrics. And then I am still learning different appliqué techniques. For the circles, I mostly basted them on the Karen Kay Buckley templates, ironed with starch and sewed on. The leaves were needle turned and I find they are puffier and not entirely sure I mastered the technique quite yet. I have yet to trim the block and give it a bit more ironing. But for now it will do, so. can work on my Garden Party Down Under Month 2.

[NinaMarie]

Kati, I really love the colors you chose. Actually, you got me wondering where this color scheme is going. I especially like the star print and the surprise of the little circles in gold at the end of the stems.

[TeresaAnn]

[TeresaAnn]

I used stash fabrics, but quilt show background. I found to make bias stems, easiest for me was clover 1/4 inch bias stem maker, and I used Karen Kay Buckleys perfect circles. Alex Andersond method to stitch the bias stems, but my first attempt at hand applique! So far, I am not a only learning, but enjoying the process!

[Angela F.]

Here is my month 3 progress. First time doing needle turn applique and improving with each leaf. I used Karen Kay Buckley method to make my circles. Really enjoying this.