Ritzy, I love your design and the rich reds and greens. I pray you will wake up tomorrow with the perfect solution! And, the confidence to go with it! Love the stripes, too! I'll bet that wasn't easy!

Dawn
In beautiful Northwest Montana

Ritzy, it is very beautiful. I love the design, and I love the background fabric. I am sure if you let it sit until tomorrow....it will speak to you as to what you want to do with it.

I, too, had to really stare at the block and it still took me a bit even after I enlarged it. I love Robin's suggestion of adding a star and turning it a bit. That would be lovely and would balance your eyes where even you won't be bothered by the minor shift. It's really lovely. Love the poinsettia.

Ritzy, your block is lovely!! You may notice a flaw, but I really doubt anyone else will. I had to look hard to see what you mean. I really like the fabrics you've chosen and especially the stripe in the corners -- lovely! I'm sure you'll find the right thing to do with the top corner. Perhaps a star? especially if you turned it a bit, then it wouldn't be lining up with anything.

That was one consideration but then I thought that if I just unsew the point of the heart and do some adjusting I might be able to make it less noticeable. That is why I am thinking about it overnight. Maybe God will let me know if there will be any problems with the idea before the point of no return.

I love your design! Maybe you could add another poinsettia to cover the top of the heart and shift it over a little more toward the center?

Well, I am a little discouraged with my block. When I trimmed it to size I centered the design both ways but when I cut the excess fabric off it really looked off. I checked the point of the heart and it does not line up with the top and bottom corners and it was really obvious before I put the corners on. It is still obvious--but not quite as offensive. I know it needs something in that top corner and I had planned on mistletoe but if I put anything there it just brings out the mistake. I have an idea for how to make it a little better but I am afraid of damaging the fabric or that I will do a lot of work and still not like it. I cut three different fabrics before I found one I liked on the corners. Anyway, I will let it rest until morning and then hope I am brave enough to make a decision.

Thank you, Geneva. Thank you, Margo, I'll check both sites out. Annis, I'll be eager to hear how the wash-away sheets work.
Linny, I imported a photo of my focus fabric into Adobe Illustrator and traced the leaf. The flower was too small, so I just looked at it and drew it. Then I modified the leaf, and rotated and copied to get the five. Then I saved it as a PDF, but TQS doesn't recognize PDFs, so then I opened it in Photoshop and saved as a jpeg. Does that answer your question?

RGold wrote:
Robin, I love your design and your focus fabric. I don't think it's too busy at all.

May I ask, what did you use to make the picture of your design?

linny t

Robin, Sharon Schamber uses her applique fouundation product for needleturn applique, and I think it's the same stuff as Ricky's Stable Stuff. It does need to be glued to the back of the fabric with washable glue.

http://www.sharonschambernetwork.com/Classes/AllPremiumClasses/Play/TabId/95/SeriesId/105/Free-Area-Needle-Turned-Applique-Blue-Bird.aspx

My tutorial for machine applique with Stable Stuff is located in the Classrooms link: [url]learn/classrooms/[/url]

Annis, the fusible stuff that you're talking about sounds interesting. please let us know how you like it if you do use some!

Robin I love your focus fabric and your center block. I don't think it's too busy, but do what makes you happy. I'm looking forward to seeing it in fabric. Have fun! geneva

Everyone's blocks are looking great! I'm liking all of the variations. Robin, I used a glue stick with my Stable Stuff. I'm going to try Wash-Away Applique Sheets by C & T Publishing for my next project. They have adhesive on one side.

Robin, you can use a little bit of Elmer's washable school glue on the stable stuff to hold the fabric and then a little more around the edges of the fabric to hold to the fabric--does that make sense? Margo has pictures of the process that is excellent.

Thanks, JoJo. I haven't decided about the Stable Stuff. It would be nice to get the poofiness of it. I usually do needle-turn, though. I was under the impression that the SS would stick to the fabric, but the instructions say to baste the applique to it, so I obviously didn't understand. I ordered the SS when I was planning to do the heart vine, but these leave might actually be big enough that it's not a problem. So, I'll see when I print out full size what they look like.