Hi everyone! Remember a while ago when I accused Millie of causing mischief while I was laying out the quilt blocks for the flannel quilt I am working on? Well I think I owe her an apology. After I finished putting the blocks together I kept them hanging on my design wall while I worked on the flying geese border.
I kept looking at the blocks and while it looked very nice I felt that something wasn’t quite right. I remember noticing while looking at the picture on the instructions that there was a secondary pattern that should be visible, but I couldn’t see it. In case you aren’t a quilter a secondary pattern is when two or more blocks together draw your eye to more than the actual block (I tried to Google it but I couldn’t find anything). I got out the instructions again and discovered my problem.
What I realized was that in the second and fourth rows the hour-glass blocks should have been rotated 90°s. The bottom line was that I needed to rip all the rows apart and completely separate the blocks in two of the rows. I think Millie was trying to tell me to check my instructions before sewing everything together, but I didn’t listen.
It may be difficult to see, but if you compare the two pictures you should see that the stars in the middle row now have more cream-colored fabric surrounding them. It is also there for the first and last row, but not as complete. I could have just left the blocks the way they were, but I think the proper arrangement will make it a bit easier to quilt. After adding the three borders the top is now ready to baste and quilt. It’s finished size is 80″ x 80″ so it is a generous lap quilt.
My goal is to get this quilt completed soon so I can also finish quilting my king sized quilt and have them both ready for the Genesee Valley Quilt Club show in June. I purchased two different threads to use on this quilt. One is cream variegated and the other is a variegated thread with similar colors to the dark fabrics in the quilt. Of course using two different thread colors will make it take a bit longer, but I didn’t think that I could pick one thread color to use across the entire quilt.
There is also enough left over fabric (especially all the left over triangles from making so many half-square triangles) that I should be able to make some pillows to go with it too. I just love the rich colors in this quilt and since it is flannel it is extra soft too. I hope you like it too.
Bird Brains & Dog Tales 