A Dove in the Window for Madeline

Here's my block, at last. It uses the white muslin and 2 patterned fabrics sent by Madeline. That paper piecing eats up fabric. I'm afraid I only have a teeny bit of the gold left.

Like Dee, I had trouble with the points, but only the 2 that were separate little squares; not those that were part of the long piece. Dee, was that where you ran into trouble? I wonder if it's the pattern. Anyway, I played with the seams a bit and they're not too bad now. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished quilt.

Thanksgiving Blessings and a Block

Well, it came out on my first try.  LOL

I've been dreading this one because I hadn't had time to sit down and properly read the instructions and all that kept floating in my head was the combination of paper piecing and "hand" piecing.

I spent last weekend at my mom's helping her through her sleepy weekend after chemo.  I had packed up all my sewing stuff since I had two days where she would be napping.

I started working on a new project and read thoroughly through the instructions for Madeline's block.

Today was the first day I've had to sew a test block.

I traced the templates with tracing paper and worked off those.  It came out to the 9" unfinished block.  Thinking maybe my 1/4" seam is stingy?

Hope you like it ma mie!

Happy Thanksgiving to all celebrating tomorrow and may we all have attitudes of gratitude throughout the year!

God bless!

Pratice Block for Madeline

I thought I'd share with you my practice block for "Dove in the Window"

After reading that there were problems with the paper piecing templates on quilterscache, I decided to print them out and take a look.  Math isn't my strong point, but I realized straight away that the templates were too small.  If you think of this block as a basic 9-patch to finish to 9", each "patch" should be 3" without seam allowances and 3.5" with seam allowances.

Since this appears to be a fairly simple block, I decided to draw the block on graph paper and piece in the conventional way. 

I used my triangle tool to cut the points ... and the block came together fairly quickly.

I'm assuming this is a 9" block, and the unfinished dimensions should be 9.5".  Madeline, if this is incorrect, please let me know!

Claudia

A fix for Madeline's block (I hope!)

Madeline would like an 8.5" unfinished block, and the pattern hasn't been cooperating all that well.

If you measure the length of one of the strips in Template A, you will find the block width, both finished and unfinished.
http://www.quilterscache.com/images64/doveatthewindowtempA.gif

If your template is not measuring 8.5" unfinished, you might want to try what I did. I eventually found that if I printed at 93% of the actual size (control P, look under preferences, then efffects) I'd have an 8.5" unfinished block. My grade-school ruler tells me that this block has a "1-inch test square" that measures 29/32 of an inch, which sort of looks like a smidge over 7/8".

You can play with your printer's settings to see what percentage you need to arrive at 8.5" across. Then use the same setting to print Template B. http://www.quilterscache.com/images64/doveatthewindowtempB.gif

One word of caution: by shrinking the templates we will be leaving Madeline with seam allowances between 3/8" and 1/4". If you normally use a generous seam allowance you may need to print Template B a little larger (moving up to 94% might be enough). Please consider making a trial block, or at least a trial centre section.

I'll report back in a day or two once, I've finished mine.

Good luck!

Crazy Patterns

Hello ladies.

Suzanna sent me an e-mail that the template that I printed from Quilter's Cache site and sent to you is off.

She said they are a bit smaller than expected.  I asked for a 9" block, and Suzanna says the individual squares should measure 3.5" but they are not quite 3.25".  If you use the templates the block will be  about 8" finished and 8.5" unfinished instead of the 9" I'd originally asked for.

I'd like the 9" block.  Please don't stress---this is supposed to be fun!  and I'll make it work.

~Madeline

 

November Block

HAPPY HALLOWEEN.

Colorful Fall Greetings to you. 


I can't believe an entire year is almost over and it's my turn.  Thank you so much for making the November block for me.  We will be using April Cornell’s Prayer Flag material to construct the Dove at the Window 9” block found at Quilter’s Cache website.  It shows it as partly paper pieced.  I’ve printed off the templates (if you need them) and included it with the fabric that I'll mail out tomorrow.

Please put the light material on the outside and the patterned material as the star points.  For the centre section of the block I’ve sent a second patterned fabric and a strip of the light fabric.

The Prayer Flag pattern I’m going to adapt is at Moda under Free Stuff > Patterns (6th picture down
in the first row). 

I hope it’s a fun block for everyone. 


~ Madeline

Lesly's "Le Soleil"

Such a fun little block to make and such sweet fabric.  The sun came out in all its bright glory while I was making this

block so I'm calling it "Le Soleil."  It squared up nicely, too.  I'll put it in the mail tomorrow, Lesly.

I didn't have a very good time with Claudia's Ohio Star.  (shameful since I've made a ton of them in the past AND I'm originally from Ohio).  Where was the sun?  I swear I took my time cutting the pieces, got all of the triangle points together, nice and crisp,  pressed them, and went to sew them to the 4.5" corner and ...

gosh, be darn, drats, crud and other choice words.  

The sewn triangles were an inch smaller than the corner pieces.  Now, how did that happen?  duh.  I just know I must be the only math challenged person in the group who can't count out the difference between 4.5" and 3.5".  

 Claudia answered my confession e-mail so I'm thinking she forgives me.