MONTH 3 Blog is Up

[Darlene P.]

I agree Helen that hand piecing this block is not my idea of fun either. I actually considered appliqueing large pieces to a background block, but since I bought the kit, I wouldn't have enough fabric for all those large pieces. I'm currently in Florida at my winter home and my 25-year fabric stash is back in Maine, so I am limited. I think I am going to go with Barbara's mitered square background instead. I can supplement with a few more quarter yards if I run short.

I adore your flower block!

[Helen W.]

Darlene, Your rainbow looks great. Love the dot fabric. It gives great contrast so all your hard work shows
clearly. I like your idea of get your rainbows done while you are on a roll. When you get to Month 3 petal block
if all the pieced curves drives you crazy, I came up with a way using 2 circles. I started one block piecing the
shapes and decided really early on that that was not what I call fun. So I came up with an easier less stressful
way, and then after that I redesigned the flower looking block with shapes from Daisy Do pattern of Jen Kingwell.
The picture below are the shapes I used for a circle block. It is all applique turned edge using template plastic
and glue dots. The other picture is with Pick a petal Daisy do too block. HelenW
CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE

[Darlene P.]

My newest rainbow block looks pretty good. Thanks for all your help, Helen. I have decided to devote this month to the rainbow blocks and save the petal blocks for later in the year.

[Helen W.]

Way to go Darlene!!! So if that is 2, you only have 30 more to go!!! Happy Stitching with a smile
curve on your face as you sew all those fan curves. HelenW

[Helen W.]

Darlene, I have benefited from Judith taking the time to explain her template plastic with glue
dots for folded edge applique. It has been a life saver for me. There are so many different ways
to get a block that one enjoys taking the time to make. The hardest part is trying to figure out

how to get the pictures and explanations onto the forum format. So glad you are happy with your
fan blocks. I used Karen K Buckley template plastic, not freezer paper, but it is good to know that works too. HelenW

[Darlene P.]

Helen, I just made one like that and it's perfect! Also, I took my ripply block, ripped out my hand stitches, sewed a quarter inch seam on my machine, pressed the fan downward, and now I think it looks acceptable. I still haven't finished a month three block though.

[Darlene P.]

Helen I need you to be my new best friend. Thank for taking the time to help me with my curved piecing problem. Looking closer I can see that you have made a freezer paper template for the background, whereas I followed Barbara's 28 minute video where she hand sewed the background on. I can't seem to upload a photo of the back, it keeps saying unable to upload. It looks pretty bad. Trying it with the freezer template as you have done gave me a very nice-looking block. I don't know why I didn't do that to start, that's the way I did my last set of 20 blocks and they look good. I consider myself to be an advanced quilter, but I have never made a quilt with this much curved hand piecing before.

[Helen W.]

Darlene, Here is how it do it.
Photo 1 Purple line is the sew line. Template does not include the seam allowance.
Cut the seam allowance beyond the sew line.
Photo 2 Clip the seam allowance. Put dots of glue on the seam and press over the template.
The fold is the sew line for placement on top of the fan unit.
Photo 3 Shows that the fold line of background and sew line of fan are the same length and align
on top of each other.
Photo 4 Show that I stay stitched in the seam allowance just off the sew line so that I could see the sew line
on the front of the fan.
Photo 5 I put glue dots in the seam allowance of fan and then place the background onto the fan. Align centers and
just cover the stitch line.
Photo 6 The forum note came up that I can only attach 5 photos, so #6 was top stitching the background to the fan.
HelenW

[Helen W.]

Darlene, Just playing around with a couple photos. The first photo is the overlap
sew line to sew line. If you look at the ruler it is 8 1/2 inches, but both you and I
made the background larger because curves often can use up a little more of
the seam allowance leaving the piece a bit small.

Photo two is a screen shot of your fan block. Not concerning about if I got
the size exact, but look at the curve sew line. it should follow the shape of
your block, it it looks like your fan goes off a little wide at the bottoms.
So I measured the sew line using a tape on its edge and it should be 12 1/4
inches. So that means the fan sew line should also be 12 1/4 inches.
Are you drawing lines on the back of the fabric? If you have a block where you
have not added the fan, measure the line. That should tell you if your cutting
out pattern template is correct. If you have a fan assembled, measure the line. It should be the
same as the sew line for the background. HelenW

CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE

[Helen W.]

Thanks for the ripply rainbow, love that wording... Just looking
at the front, (would also like to see the back) I don't think it is



your stitching. Makes me think maybe the pattern that printed
out for your templates might not have been exactly the correct
size. Now if you are using the kit templates in orange, that
would not be a problem unless when you put the 2 N templates
together you did not line up the center area sew line on sew
line. If that was the case you would have an extra 1/4 inch
you were easing in. Can I see a picture of the back? The stitching looks great. I am thinking cut out pieces are a little off.
HelenW

Do a double check on the actual pattern size of pieces and
of the template you made to make it one piece.

[Darlene P.]

Here we go, my ripply rainbow!

[Darlene P.]

Obviously, I have no idea what I am doing!

[Darlene P.]

Helen W I would love to show you my rainbow block, but I can't seem to figure out how to post a photo in a comment!

[Helen W.]

Darlene, Could you post a picture of one of your blocks with close up of front and back?
When you say ripply are you talking about where the fan is stitched to the background, or
the edge of the background is not laying flat. Sometimes the tension is too tight when stitching.
If by hand, they suggest you smooth the stitches as you go. If by machine reduce the top
tension. If I use clear monopoly thread I have to go from default of 4.6 to 1.8 which is what
superior thread recommends on their website. Have you been drawing the sew lines on the back
of the fabrics? When you have curves you can see if the stitches are staying on the line on
both the pieces you are putting together. HelenW