Jetmaio

Over the last few years quite a few of TQS the BOMs have been entered in shows and won ribbons for the maker.

I have a question that I've been wondering about. Can we enter a quilt in a contest that we have not designed ourselves? Not that I think my quilt will be that worthy but with all the members doing this quilt there just might be a spectacular one worthy of entering. Curious minds want to know.[/quote]
Yes, you can enter a quilt that you have not designed in a quilt show. You need to make sure you give the pattern designer credit, and sometimes it helps to ask permission. The key is always give credit where credit is due!

Maggie in E. Central Illinois

I finally decided to try Month 1 for the third time and finally have a gorgeous center circle. I did as suggested and watched the videos by Carol Doak and Sue Garmin and also cut the pieces larger than suggested. I am very pleased with the results and at this time only have 9 more circles to machine applique down before I go on to the next part of Month 1. I sure hope I can finish month 2 in time to be on target in March. As far the the printer ink I have learned NOT to use steam and also I purchased the Carol Doak paper for piecing. This has to be one of the most gorgeous quilts and is offered for free, can't beat that.

I have a question that I've been wondering about. Can we enter a quilt in a contest that we have not designed ourselves? Not that I think my quilt will be that worthy but with all the members doing this quilt there just might be a spectacular one worthy of entering. Curious minds want to know.

I print on the fast or economy setting then press the paper with a hot iron and a clean sheet of paper on top so that it "sets" the ink. Have never had any trouble with transfer of ink to fabric.

I found Sarah's measurements also to be "just big enough". I cut the framing the units for Month 2 (sorry, I am on vacation and can't remember the letters) about 1/2" longer and wider than Sarah instructed. That gave me some comfort room for error. Carol Doak usually recommends generous cutouts. I really like the sewing of the guidelines for placement of the applique and also for the placement of the framing units. Honestly, everything came together absolutely fantastically for me! Yes, this is not for the faint of heart, but I think it is doable if you take your time. We are learning some great new techniques! There are going to be some awesome quilts at the end of the year! I am even thinking this would be great done "downsized"!

Maggie in E. Central Illinois

neunzap wrote:

Here comes try #3. This time I am cutting the pieces larger to avoid further frustration. Thank you ladies for suggesting I watch Carol Doaks and Sue Garmin. Both of the videos were very helpful too. I really would like to get January done before March is posted. Will let you know.

If you are having trouble getting the pieces positioned, start with bigger ones! You cut off the extra anyway, and it can save a lot of aggravation. Sarah's sizes are just big enough, so cutting an extra 1/2" on length or 1/4 on width will probably help a lot - especially if you are a beginner.

It might have been a good idea to start on some practice pieces of fabric first to get the technique going before moving on to the real fabric. I watched Carol Doak's show last night and it did help a lot. But I am still finding it hard to position the pieces with enough on the top and bottom. I had an 'add a quarter inch" ruler which I now know how to use properly thanks to Carol Doak. Maybe, with some more practice and a lot more patience I will get this eventually. Thanks to everybody for encouragement and suggestions. And Lisa I am looking forward to seeing your video tutorial - videos definitely work best for my brain.

I hope people give this BOM and extra shot. I had several problems with the January part, and had to do quite a bit of unsewing/resewing, but I am so pleased with how it is going now. And... although I have "wasted" some fairly large pieces of fabric as well as stabilizer, I have learned so much, that I guess it will all be OK. I hope that in the end (when I am enjoying my finished quilt) I can look at it and feel good about what I have learned and my perserverance.

However... I have only just begun(!) February!

I do not think this project is for the faint of heart. If you have never done paperpiecing, it's going to be a challenge, for sure. The whole backwards thing becomes really intuitive, but I have had a lot of practice. In the beginning I thought it was a nightmare. I taught myself with the Carol Doak book and that was before there were videos available. I wasted a lot of fabric at first, but the project was very small and the pieces I was throwing away were small scrap sized bits. I would also be tearing out my hair if I made mistakes on the big chunks we are using for Sedona Star.I second the recommendation about the Add-a-Qarter or Add-an-Eighth rulers. I always use them for paper piecing. I have been printing the templates onto Deb Karasik's Perfect Paper Piecing Paper. The ink does not run or smear (I have an HP inkjet printer). It is made of 100% cotton fibers, despite its transparent appearance, so it doesn't dull scissors or rotary cutters. It also serves as a stabilizer for stitching around the fused pieces.

Reetzbobeetz wrote:
I didn't use my Go cutter for the circles. I used a mathematical compass and drew them onto my fusible with that, then cut them out with scissors.

For those people who have had a bad experience with printer ink bleeding into the fabric or seamline thread, I will share how I did mine. I'm not saying my way is right or wrong, just an alternate way of doing it. I printed out my patterns onto paper piecing paper. I lightly glued the paper to a foundation (mine happened to be EQ Printables, but it will work with Ricky's SS). Once the fabrics are stitched to the foundation/paper units (foundation between fabric and paper) and all are pieced together, the paper (with the ink on it) can be removed, leaving the foundation and fabric. No more ink! (I would leave the paper on the outermost areas for the seamlines to match up with the next units seams.) I hope this is clear!

Dawn
In beautiful Northwest Montana

Ladies, I started a thread about a ruler suggestion and I did it for a reason!

I seriously, absolutely, positively totally suggest using the add-an-eight ruler! There will be absolutely no question of where you're supposed to put your fabric. And it goes SO MUCH FASTER. I made this quilt in about half the time it would've taken me doing it the "regular" way.

As for the ink transferring to the fabric, you should not use steam when doing this project. For several reasons. Whether the ink will come out or not, I would suggest washing the quilt top (pre-quilting) once it's finished with a detergent with an oxy-boost in it and keep fingers crossed!

Reetzbobeetz wrote:
If you didn't live so far away I could show you how I paper piece using an on top method so you don't have to think backwards. You have to draw extra lines on the paper and cut the odd pieces using templates so the prep time takes a little longer but the sewing goes fast. I'm in the process of doing some blocks of the week for my website using my paper piecing method that will be a free download in PDF files. I just started on Friday so it may take a week or 2 to get the first ones posted. Now that I've said it I can't back out. Don't give up on paper piecing. Carol Doak's way is good too.