Lydia's Dove in the Window Block

Lydia's block arrived.  Isn't it so pretty?

Thanks.

Merry Christmas and

      (¯`O´¯)
        *./ | \ .*
   * .* *.
    * . • '* * ' • ,
    * . '*• •*'
 * *. ' *, • ' ' • ,* '
* .' * • * * • * '
 *  * , • JOYEUX• , * '
*   * ' • * * • ' * '
' * ' • ***  NOEL*** • ' * ' '
' ' * • * * • * ' '
  ( )
  ( )

~Madeline

Hope to hear from you...

Happy Holiday Happiness to you!  We have ice, beautiful to look at, treacherous to drive in.  Hope you are all ready for Christmas and keeping warm.  It's this season of yummy baking.

I've only received a block from Dee for the November block exchange.  I did hear from Alison that she's unable to make my block so I thought I'd better check with everyone else if there is a concern or problem.  Also, I haven't received Solidia's (December's turn for a special block) fabric and instructions yet.



~ Madeline

Catching Up

I have been dilatory!  Please forgive!  But I have caught up, at last - here are the blocks for Madeline and Claudia!

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!