MONTH 8 -- Show Your Progress Here

[Barbara B.]

Please use this TOPIC to share your progress.

[Helen W.]

Month 8 and here is what I have done so far. Using flannel and decided to put the coneflowers in the corners
instead of sawtooth stars. Birds are small and on the vines. Border is a from a Lori Smith pattern called Aunt
Millies best. I love just using the BOM as a jump off place to make it look the way I see it in my mind.
HelenW

[baerbel.sch]

I think the cornflowers look much better than the stars in your version of the quilt

[Jan M.]

Beautiful!!!!

[Barbara B.]

My friend Margo has a great idea for the Petal Flower. She is making a “bow tie” template that combines two petals. Isn’t that brilliant?! Stitch one on top of the other, add the circle to finish it off.

[Terri S.]

Thank you Margo! Brilliant, indeed. Thank you for sharing!

[Renee M.]

Month 8 plus a little more complete.

[Renee M.]

On my Bernina 890 I used the same blanket stitch. On the flowers that are raw edge I set the width at 1.2 and length at 2.5.

[Barbara B.]

Very nice stitching, good job. Thanks for sharing your work.

[Renee M.]

I use soft fuse light. It does not gum up your needle and is not stiff or crunchy. Excellent for quilts.

[Marilyn M.]

Top section Month 8 finished - remaining three underway, so slowly catching up. Not sure if I have sufficient room to add the leaf beside the petal flower, so will wait and see. I elected to cut the lavender "ring" as a ring, i.e. I needle-turned both the inner and outer sections on to the background fabric - less bulk that way. As a result my bright pink centre petals overlap the ring a little, which I quite like. Also, the pale lavender petal flower at the top was appliqued as per the pattern and I'm not really happy with it. May redo it, as it looks a bit "wonky", no matter which way I look at it and it will continue to bother me forever. For petals for the remaining borders, I have cut and appliqued them using the suggested method by Margo - thank you Margo! I like that method better! Sorry about the photos; no matter how times I have uploaded them, one remains upside down and the other one has the outer orange flowers cut off. I know when I'm beat and give up! Later.......amazingly, when I click on the photos, everything appears right way up and in entirity.

[Jennifer C.]

Thank you friend Margo for the suggestion about the bow tie template.! I was worried about positioning all of those petals -- they turned out nice. I decided to make a template for the stem flower and flower top -- that also worked well as they all came out uniform. I'll be machine sewing almost all of the quilt. I've been placing my flowers for the last few days and am finding my vines were all positioned differently on the 9" border. I'm glad I cut it oversize because when it is cut to the final 8-1/5" some of the cutting will be from the top of the border and some will be from the bottom! I had a heck of a time with those vines so I'm just glad so far I was able to place all of the flowers even though not necessarily as shown. I'm having a good time working on this quilt and working on not being discouraged when I find I'm not a perfect quilter -- yet.(Lol) The fabrics are beautiful and I'm glad I didn't give up. Thanks to Barbara and all of you who share -- it really helps.

[Jennifer C.]

I also wanted to share that the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser works very well for removing the water erasers such as a Styla marker-- I placed a line at the top and bottom of the border to prevent my flowers from landing in the seamline. To get the marks off the eraser works with only water and very little pressure--it takes the marks out without getting the piece overly wet.

[midnight33]

[midnight33]

I'm really enjoying this project. I just couldn't wait to get those birds on so jumped ahead a bit. Placing those twisted vines was hard. I'm trying to stop myself/wait for the pattern by just fusing the vines & pinning the birds on. I used accuquilt cutter to cut flower shapes. It's fun to see everyone's design changes, thanks ya'll for posting

[Monique G.]

Kandy, I love the birds you used. I assume it isn't from the pattern (as it isn't out yet). Could I ask what pattern you used to achieve these delightful birds.

[midnight33]

Thank you Monique, I just zoomed in on one of Barbara's pics showing the birds & tried to draw something close....they ended up a little on the chubby side LOL Three pieces, I put one wing behind & the batik wing in front

[Gloria V]

Month 8 finished...with a few mishaps along the way. Upon finishing Month 7, I discovered that I had cut one border 2 inches short!
So I ripped out the sewn appliques, sewed more stems, cut another border piece and reapplied the appliqués. Quilters are not quitters...we roll with the punches!!

[baerbel.sch]

Month 8 is done and I made my swallows instead of the pigeons . This is a wonderful quilt. I am so happy to make it! But my design wall is too small for this quilt .

[Patricia M.]

I came to a standstill on Month 6 with the Star Blocks and my brain just can't figure them out. I was away visiting my daughter for most of July so have printed up everything with the intention of working on it after I got back home. I came home to a total disaster in my sewing room & I've spent some time trying to find my fabrics (in a container) buried somewhere! Lots of excuses but this hasn't ever happened to me before. I have a brain fog I need to get rid of despite inspiration in seeing everyone's progress.

[Carol G.]

I know this BOM is making a mess of my sewing room! lol If it's the larger stars giving you a problem, make a different star block.

[Carol G.]

Month 8 is done and I made my swallows instead of the pigeons . This is a wonderful quilt. I am so happy to make it! But my design wall is too small for this quilt .

After seeing your earlier post about changing out the birds, I have that in the back of my mind to do that too. In the meantime, I still have 3 borders to finish for this month!

[Margo C.]

I wound up making a single template for the entire Petal Flower. There isn’t much seam allowance to turn under, but it worked really well!

[Barbara B.]

Perfect solution! Much easier than trying to place 4 separate small petals. Thanks for sharing!

[Helen W.]

Margo, Beautiful solution, and beautiful turned edge. I would love to see your quilt in progress.
I have always admired everything I have seen you do over the years at TQS. I have been a little disappointed that you have not posted more pictures of your work. Seems like you do the BOM every year. I have learned a lot from you in past. Your work is always an inspiration. HelenW