Saturday, April 21, 2012

UP 2012 #1 - Green Chinese Lanterns - the next stage.

And here are the finished Chinese Lantern blocks laid out together to get the right distribution of light and dark fabrics and balance of patterns. And to my surprise! (not really) I have made two halves too many and the layout of blocks didn't match my hand-drawn draft. I've got four whole lantern blocks in each column instead of three that I drafted, but I also have only six columns instead of eight.

And I have noticed that there are some variances with the block widths which might make for some tricky sewing as I continue. Oh well! I've had worse! At this stage it's currently about 57" x 55" in size, which should shrink some with better placement and seam allowances. But it should make for a small double bed size quilt when I add borders.

At this point I will walk away and do something else and periodically come back to check the placement of blocks and make any adjustments until I'm entirely happy that all these blocks can stay where they are permanently. This advice I pass along from the lovely ladies who ran Mad About Quilting at Morningside, which is sadly no longer there. Layout your fabrics and then walk away to refresh your view.  Come back and check things out in different lights, angles and try different fabrics, which can be a delaying process but it makes for no regrets after things have been cut and sewn and quilted. Well, in most cases.

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