Have you ever made clothes? That is curved piecing too - only you are not intending it to lay flat lol! The trick is to make sure you have several registration marks on both pieces that are being joined, and make sure they match as you come to them, pinning really helps, especially if you do it perpendicular (90 degrees) to the edge. (Stitching over the pins is optional but not recommended).

just and update. she decided to start a double wedding ring after all with only three rings to make a tabletopper or table runner to get her feet wet. yes she is the type that likes to jump in full force which i can be also. she is just overwhelming me with asking for help. she is going to see how this works out but we have already discovered a tool by simpicity that looks like it would help. it is a templete set that looks like it would make cutting the fabric so much easier especially keeping size consistant. the fun part of this is that we can work on it together in that i want to make one also. right now she is hand sewing but i really would like to machine sew it as i have not sewn curved peicing yet.

yes i do cherish my sister it is just hard right now as she has had to move in with me and my hubby and we are still working out those kinks. you know it is like to much of a good thing. i love my family but i do better with small doses of them at a time.

thank you all for your ideas and support with this post, they are wonderful.
eileen

Like your sister, I had to start with patterns that appealed to me, and this didn't necessarily mean easy.. but unlike your sister, I started with cushions, so I could see the outcome quicker, and get the confidence to deal with a big quilt. After 4 years of quilting, I have just started quilting the biggest quilt I have done and that is still just over lap quilt size! Although I am just finishing a queen size quilt top, so I will soon graduate big time.

I used the on point approach to a lap quilt for the lounge room, where I didn't have enough scrap strips to make the quilt as large as I wanted, worked wonderfully. I googled the sizes for the inset triangles and managed to find good instructions.

Your sister has to love it and understand the hours she will have to invest.. if the joy of the process is what she is after, this will be awesome. But if the joy is the finished product, it may become a UFO.. maybe a good get out of jail free plan is in order, ie 4 blocks in, and decide whether it is a quilt or a bed topper! Either way, hopefully she will love the craft and enjoy every minute of it, like we all do.

We are all different, Eileen. I had to start quilting with something really simple and 'find my feet', so to speak. Ten years later I still prefer simple techniques, but can happily cope with more complicated designs and techniques. But I know one quilter whose first piece was a king size bedquilt, hand-pieced from 1.5 inch squares, and another who started with pieced curves (shudder!). Maybe your sister needs to go for something complicated. She'll either swim (and never look back) or sink. Either support your sister the best you can, send her to classes so somebody else can sort her out, or point her to 'quilt university' where she can take an online course. Whatever you decide, enjoy having a sister. I wish I had one.

all seem like great ideas i will share them with my sister and let you all know what she decides but i am still pushing for a different quilt all together. something simpler.
thank you
eileen

Heather--great advice--and from a newbie too! See we all have something to offer.

Margo wrote:
whew, thanks Margo!

Now I'll leave it to you more experienced quilters to figure out size of setting triangles, layout (rows of 5 and 4 comes out 5 blocks short....taking to 6 and 5 would give some extras I think....my math is coming out wonky right now so I don't trust myself on this....), etc. and whether to use sashing or not to get the size needed.

I just know as a beginner, this would be one way to enlarge without needing to do extra applique/handwork.

It's a great idea, Heather!

Another thought, and not sure since I'm pretty new myself but is what a friend is helping me with....

I started a Diary Quilt (from Mimi Dietrich's book, Quilters Diary) and thought I want it for my bed (queen size). Didn't even dawn on me as I started, because I am just.that.new. that 25 little 6" x 6" blocks (finished size) would, umm, NOT make a queen size quilt or anywhere near.

So. Talked with my mentor and she suggested putting setting triangles to enlarge each block and setting on point. This keeps the center blocks (the applique blocks or whatever) straight set, turns the full block on point using the setting triangles, and makes them larger. Then add sashing between on top of that, and she'll still need to lengthen the borders and maybe even add more borders (we only took mine out to an 80-something square.....) but might be an option if she doesn't want to do so many more of each square. Mine's only 25 squares, so also not sure if 49 squares would work or wind up too big, or ?? Might work out okay.....

Perhaps someone with more experience will weigh in on this idea and say if it's crazy, feasible, or ??? but just a thought.

Maybe you can help her make ONE block before you buy all the fabric so she will see how labor intensive a king size top would be!

i have been trying to talk her into something else her next choice is a double wedding ring which is not much better. i have also tried to talk her into just doing this as a wall hanging first to get the hang of it. i have started this quilt myself so i am not entering this lightly. her main concern is the colors that she wants the black and bright colors which i have told her that you can make any quilt in those colors and it would look stunning but she has a hard time seeing quilts patterns in other colors than what is shown. but we will see
than you for the info i will pass it on to her.

Lucy, if you make 195 blocks (that finish 7" x 7") you will get a quilt that measures 91" x 105".

If you alternate them with solid blocks, you can get by with 97 or 98 appliqued blocks, depending on whether you put them in the blank area or the colored area on this lay-out:



I found the book pictured in Amazon: {!-- ia0 -->lucy.jpg{!-- ia0 -->

The complexity of the blocks on the cover of this book, and the size of the project you are thinking about might be overwhelming for a beginning quilter.
You might want to talk her into something else to start with.

thank you margo for your quick come back.
she would like to have a queen size measuring the standard 90x 106 so i see we need to increase the number of each block that she would do from 2 of each to more.
i think the quilting would be restricted to going around the appliques and maybe a quarter of an inch around the seams for the blocks but not sure. so i would say that she needs to account for that. as i said before she is new so i am sure that the quilting will not be extensive.

i really hope i have not gotten in over my head with helping her with this. i appreciate your advice.

From what I gather, Lucy, the layout of the quilt you are considering is 49 blocks that finish 7" x7" with a 7" wide mitered border.
Is this correct? If so, the measurements make that lay-out 63" x 63". How large does your sister want the quilt to be?
Do you realize that is will shrink some depending on how much quilting is done? Do you want to allow extra for that?