what I did finally to line everything up just right is as follows:
Marked my placement lines on my fabric with an iron out pen
Hooped only stablizer and threaded machine with wash away thread
Placed my fabric under the hooped stabilzer
Lined up my placement marks on stablizer with those on fabric
Pinned my fabric very carefully to stabilzer making sure placement marks remained lined up
Placed my applique pieces in correct spots used mini iron to fuse
removed wash away thread and rethread with the thread of my choice.
This worked perfectly for me Of course I did wreak a few blocks before this light blub came on......lol

On my 3rd try and I'm about ready to pull my hair out...the first section is fine, but the second section when I change hoop, will not line up. Is anyone usign a Bernina 440QE that can help.

Pat

My July placements went alot better I learnt alot from Junes blocks.I not quite done Julys yet but it is going much smoother.

My machine is a Bernina 630 and I use the Large Oval Hoop which measures 145 x 255 and it takes 4 hoopings. I did find that after doing the July embroidery for #1 and #2, that it was difficult to align #3 and after doing several "rippits" I found that on my embroidery screen, there is a function that allows me to adjust where I need to put the design. It was a bit frustrating, however, I learned something new that I didn't know my machine could do. All in all it is a challenge but I am thoroughly enjoying how my top is coming together. I will be posting pixs soon.

Pat ---- I am sure we can tackle this beast and get it done, on my last and finally block for month 6 I have it all figured out ...lol so month 7 will be a breeze Im sure. Even though its been a challenge this BOM I am loving the results and if I complete it and Iam determine to it will be the prettiest quilt I have even made.

Cindy...now you got me shakin' in my boot LOL! I'm going to beat this thing if it kills me. On the video, she made it look so simple..have to do a little unsewing, and try it again. Once it get it figured out..I feel I can tackle anything hahaha.

Pat

OMG Im not even finished month 6 and it sounds like month 7 is even harder to line up. I really dont mind doing it all just with a blanket stitch or satin stitch just on my normal machine, so tell me straight. For month 7 would it be less frustrating for me to just go ahead and do a satin stitch using my normal machine ?

Nifegirl: You will find the center of the template on the mid-section and when you see the machine embroidery design you will realize that you cannot put the "top" as Sarah indicates to the left side of the hoop. You have to rotate it around so that your design does not come out sideways. If you are not doing machine embroidery with the satin stitch you may not run into this if you bought her full blown design. Not sure how that is working out. But for in the hoop embroidery we were provided with the satin stitch to finish off our applique. And on that mid-section her instructions tell you wrong on how to get things properly rotated.

I understand the frustration and I cannot afford a new machine myself. However, Sarah's way is a bit different from others that do machine applique and it does take some time to get used to, but I love the way things line up with multi-hooping and I don't have to hoop the fabric! Month 6 was fine after I resolved the issues with the format my machine uses.

If your listening Ricky<<<< I wish the videos could be longer so those who have not done embroidery this way or is new to machine embroidery could wrap their brains around it a whole lot faster with little or no frustration, in the month that the method is introduced, not a month later.

I am behind on this quilt and hope to start on Month 7 this weekend. Lordy I hope I don't have the issues you all have had with this month because this quilt might not get done if I do! Next year could we do without circles or paper piecing??
Just a thought.

Cindy...sounds like a plan and Recycling why would you have to turn your embroidery in the middle? You lost me there LOL!

I agree I honestly dont think the embordiery pattern quite matched the template pattern , I worked on my first block (Month 6) for over 10 hrs trying to figure out how to line it up best. I threw away that block and I cant say Im 100% happy with the next blocks , all and all I probly should have just stuck with the traditional way but I really want to use my embordiery machine Things would have been much easier had I had a machine that would allow one hooping but since my embordiery machine was a gift and there is no way Im paying 1000's of dollars for a new one just for one quilt , Im making due. All and all I have found the instructions fairly good and since you can post questions anything I find lacking I could just ask about , but of course Im stubborn and like alot of quilters Im sure will just work through the challenges. I still have all the paper piece parts to do on month 6 blocks and have not even started month 7 lets hope this doesnt put me behind , because once i get behid I often never finish and This is one quilt I would love to finish. We should maybe do a Skype sew one month

I am now finished with Month 7 and I agree that it was a real challenge. Using the in the hoop embroidery. And trying to figure out how to turn the block for the middle sections took some thought. And then the placements of the applique(s) were not as perfect as things for Month 6. Disappointed in the pattern directions but am finished for this month!

What I finally did because i dont have a machine that will do it in one hooping. First I put just Stablizer in the hoop then did the outline using desolveable thread,I had traced the design on to my fabric before this step. Then I just placed my fabric under the stabilzer and pinned the fabric to the stabilzer, This worked well for me I could use the outline on the stabilzer to line up with the traced pattern on my fabric ,I could,ve use tempory spray adhesive but id didnt have any at home , ill try that next month.

I have made a mess of two blocks now. I'm sewing them using two hoops. The top part is perfect, the middle portion, one side is fine and the other is misaligned. Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. My machine is a 440QE and I'm new to embroidery, so this is more than challenging for me. If anyone can give me some pointers, I would really welcome them.

Pat