Wow Rosemary it's coming on well. I love your designs can't wait to see it for real

And before anybody asks - here is how I marked out the rosette. I then stabbed through the paper at key junctions etc with a large (80) machine needle.Using the ha'penny (a George VI 1942 vintage) to score around to finish marking the design{!-- ia0 -->CIMG7682.JPG{!-- ia0 -->

I have to say that I am very pleased with the technique of scoring the fabric to mark stitching lines, it is very resilient to handling (and takes a bit of steaming to remove) but if you don't want to add any inks to your fabrics it works well. I haven't tried it on patterned fabrics yet - it would probably be more awkward to see on those, but it is a much ignored but worth while technique.

Latest update...

I've managed to quilt the basic Weardale Chain pattern over all of the sashing between and around the 6" blocks - that seemed to go on forever yesterday, with loads of interuptions of phone etc. Then yesterday evening I drew up the rosettes that I planned for the corners of the wide border, this is done using old pre-decimal penny and ha'penny pieces for size (these were a standard design element device in times past). I got one rosette stitched out last night using my Janome, but since I found that I was hand cranking it around the corners I decided that this would be more comfortable to stitch on my Gran's old hand crank Singer, so I heaved it out this morning, gave it a couple of drops of oil, a new needle and was away! Slow, steady and calm sewing ensued. Any more rosettes will also be done this way. Lastly today I drew up the template for the wide border Weardale Chain (had a stroke of luck here, I have a book by Lilian Hedley of traditional North Country designs and her pattern for Weardale Chain just fit nicely in the space ) So I have scored around the template and stitched all the 4 main lines of the design on all 4 sides and will be looking to start filling in some of the spaces on Friday (got friends coming around for a dressmaking/fitting day tomorrow){!-- ia0 -->CIMG7684.JPG{!-- ia0 -->

Our house has 10' ceilings and is usually a bit cooler inside - especially in the sewing room. Sometimes I will feel a bit chilled when I get up (from the 'puter) to go over the road to school at lunchtimes and find that it is much warmer outside than in.v

Still it has been nice getting some natural Vit D and canoeing on Sat was great too

Don't know how you are coping in this heat, I just fall asleep each evening.

Rosemary, just caught up on the thread & had to look back many pages to see your quilt. It is lovely! I can't wait to see it quilted!

You're right, Rosemary, SID ESS is not that big a deal and it really stabilizes your quilt for the next step, quilting. I took Cindy Needham's Craftsy class (who coined the term ESS) and I've had much nicer overall results when I've stabilized that way. It's not appropriate for every quilt, but it's certainly useful. Can't wait to see what you do next!

So with the exception of the central mini's that are only half done I have finished the essing over the whole thing at which point I am thinking 'Well that was fairly painless, what's all the hoo-ha about it for? I have to admit that there are a few places that I might go back over to tidy it up a bit, but the next thing will be to trim it down closer to size (so there is less to stuff through the machine ) and then get on with designing and making the templates I need.

Well done Rosemary, you are well on the way now. Can't wait to see the finished quilt.

twiglet wrote: Well considering there is a 9" wide white border with hardly any seams across it, yes I will need to be adding some more quilting - I am planning on some Weardale Chain type patterns for there. At some point I might get around to posting a sketch of the quilting I have planned so far, too.

Margo wrote:

Ah-h-h-h!! Thanks, Margo!

Every Stinkin' Seam!

Ok, I've been racking my brain, but can't figure it out...what's ESS???