Christmas Baltimore Album

Well I got done with block #1 out of the 5 needed.  I did add some french knots around the center circles of the flowers.  I thought it needed just a little more to look complete.    4 more blocks to do – I will have to look at the pattern again and see which I will want to do next.  I’m not sure if the extra touch of some embroidery will work on each block, it might be that just some of them will get that treatment.  I’m glad I picked out the light gold/beige color for the background though.  I really like it better than white would have been or even a cream color.

We had our local quilt guild meeting today and we were issued a challenge to be done by our May meeting.  We were each given a fat quarter in a small brown paper bag so no one else could see our fabric.  We are to use this fat quarter as our focus piece and other fabric from our stash (or buy).  Finish size is no smaller than 22″ x 22″ and no larger than 45″ x 45″.  This quilt is to be completely finished (top & quilted) and turned in at our May meeting where there will be judges to look them over and award a prize.  No idea what the prize is, and I normally do not do anything to be judged except at the guild for these kind of small projects.   Now I will have to get out magazines and books and start looking for something so I can get it done!  I might have to mail it to one of the members to hand in, I’m not sure if we will be back from Maryland by then.  We are leaving sometime in mid to late April and will be gone for 3 or 4 weeks I think.  We are not planning this trip closely yet so have no firm travel time.  This fabric is totally not something I would have chosen on my own!!  They wanted us to think outside of the box and believe me I will have to do that LOL

After the guild meeting I got together with my friend Julie to work on our Dear Jane’s, our friend Regina couldn’t make it today.  I got almost finished with the block I was working on and will  finish it tonight and post a photo of it tomorrow.

Yesterday’s question:  Quilt borders should be cut or pieced to match the measurements along each outer edge of the quilt.  True or False — answer was False.  (explanation given was:  taking measurements along the edges of a quilt top will probably yield four different lengths.  The discrepancy occurs because quilt blocks and other components have typically stretched a bit during assembly.  Stretching might have happened during pressing, seam allowances might not all match exactly, simply handling the quilt top can cause stretch — there are many reasons a quilt can be skewed.  Adding one or more borders gives you an opportunity to square up the sides of your quilt before you move on to finishing steps, but you should not take measurements along outer edges.

Here is a site that shows you how you should measure for adding your final borders.

Next question:  Half-square triangle units can be used as “parents” for quarter-square triangle units.

TRUE or FALSE