Month 4 question

[Lois B.]

Lois...I'd use Bethany Reynolds' methods and" Stack and Whack" that piece. It's a print with "air space" between
the elements and that is hard to find. ! Do you have mirrors ? two taped together like Sharon Schamber was
using in her demo ? Even a "four-sy" would be pretty...if you don't have enough repeats. Try it out.....and see
how it would kalidescope.( ops: spelling )

Now that sounds pretty interesting. I don't have the book or instructions. But that is certainly something to think about. Thanks.

[Nancy H.]

Although I started this project late March (getting earlier starts, huh?) I have completed everything up through Month 4. I did not do Month 2 as I'm making the wall size quilt. I have not decided what I'm going to do in the 4 blocks in the Month 1 units, however it will follow the color scheme of burnt orange and turquoise (southwest). I'm thinking about doing some bobbin work on the outer blocks that replicate the center block that will be stitched with the double blanket stitch.
Looking forward to your critiques, thoughts, ideas.

Month 1


Month 3


Month 4

[Andree B.]

Nancy, I LOVE this!
That has a lot of personnality.. I'm curious to see how the echo on the outer blocks turns out, I like that idea a lot.

Andrée

[Renata L.]

Your southwestern flair is really appealing to me, Nancy, with this design. Almost makes me want to join in the fun!...

[Constance G.]

Nancy, beautifully done! I think that "whoosh" I hear is the sound of your sewing machine running at top speed!

[Nancy H.]

Nancy, beautifully done! I think that "whoosh" I hear is the sound of your sewing machine running at top speed!

Connie, you crack me up.
:lol: :lol: :lol:

[Rita C.]

I am very interested in what you are doing Nancy. It looks great so far. I am going to start tackling the centre medallions today - I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can sew!

[Rita C.]

Are these centre squares meant to be squared up to 16 1/2"? They start out at 17" but the rectangular pieces are 16 1/2" long so I am guessing they have to be squared up to 16 1/2". It doesn't say anywhere in the instructions that I could see. I must say in praise of Sue Garman she was always clear about what size the finished pieces should be. I miss that.

[Nancy H.]

Are these centre squares meant to be squared up to 16 1/2"? They start out at 17" but the rectangular pieces are 16 1/2" long so I am guessing they have to be squared up to 16 1/2". It doesn't say anywhere in the instructions that I could see. I must say in praise of Sue Garman she was always clear about what size the finished pieces should be. I miss that.

Rita, I think I remember Margo saying something about making the medallion blocks large to allow for any shrinkage/distortion. As you can see I did not make my medallion larger, I plan on using double stabilizer when I do my double blanket stitch (and cross my fingers). Usually when I do machine embroidery I will make my block larger because I know with all the embroidery there definitely is shrinkage and distortion as I found out on the Sedona Star. It pays to experiment.

[Susan B.]

can I reply at all? I'm trying to copy/paste a part of month 3 directions and getting error codes, so ignore this while I experiment.

The directions say 17 by 17 light turquoise for the applique background.

Ha! this worked so that pdf must by copy protected. maybe.

[Margo C.]

Rita, I'm making the same assumption that we are to square them up to 16-1/2" and that is what I did in my video.
If you made a full size template for the background fabric from the pattern in the instructions, the over-all measurement does, in fact, measure 16-1/2" square.
I totally agree that Sue Garman's instructions were much more explicit!

Nancy, I left my ARC units larger so that they could be trimmed after the whole applique block was assembled.

Sue...yes....the PDF is copyright protected. It is my understanding that we can only make copies from the PDF file, but not do copy/paste or make any changes.

[Constance G.]

Rita, the block should be trimmed to 16 1/2 inches. It's at about minute 49 in Margo's video for this month. Also, if you measure the pattern piece for the appliqué background, it also measures 16 1/2 inches.

[Rita C.]

Thanks everybody. Yes Margo I did make up a full template and noticed that it was shorter than the 17" square so thought I better check before cutting anything. Not that I am there yet - still cutting out my pieces. :roll:

[Rita C.]

Finally watched Margo's latest video and as always she has tons of great information. I saw her orange stick and thought of the tool I use. It is made by American Art Clay Co., Inc. It's original use us for smoothing and modeling clay. I use it for turning my edges when I am gluing them for applique. The tool has two rubber ends. I use it the same way Margo uses her orange stick. If I do this correctly, you should be able to see pictures of it.



You might even see the glue on the ends :wink:

[Nancy H.]

Ritzy, great idea. What a wonderful group we have. We can get answers to our questions from all over the world. I love my quilting friends.