Rachel, just noticed something, you and I were looking at this within two minutes of each other on opposite sides of the World and both commenting on it. Amazing

Weeeeeird …… LOL I bet you aren’t at work right now though!! ;) It was about 3:15 in the afternoon when I posted mine.

Rachel

Nope being retired this is one pleasure I haven´t got (lucky person that I am) it was around 9.15 pm tonight approx when I saw it. As you all say out there, Have a nice day

Elle

I think you could just trim close to the stitching on both sides, then cover the join on the back with a strip of fabric, hand stitched on both sides? That would eliminate the bulk of the batting, but it's a lot of hand sewing instead.

Oh you just made me think of it! You actually make sure you don’t stitch all the way to the edge of either block, you want to leave about a ½ inch at least. Then you fold back the batting and the backing and sew the fronts right sides together with the normal ¼ inch seam. Then you put the batting back and trim it so it lays flat (should be about a ¼ inch off each). Then you lay one side of the backing flat (It will extend over the other tri a bit) and then you fold the other under ¼ of an inch and hand stitch it down. This way you don’t have to use any covering strips. You could extend your quilting on the blocks to the edges after you do this if you want as well.

Yay!!
Rachel

I think that would work very well, especially as you don't have to line up the seams on the back as you would with all the squares in the middle. (If you didn't with the squares in the middle, it would look very untidy doing it this way).

Lovely looking border Lesley, it really is a cracking quilt!

I did the same thing. Isn't it great fun! I've got a small bee of about 15 ladies and only one of them is keeping up with the schedule. The rest of us, myself included, are horribly behind. :roll: Likely it'll be 2012 before I'm finished with this quilt too. (Maybe longer. I attract UFOs like bees to a flower.) Oddly enough, everyone of us are waiting until later to do the triangles.

Most of the gals in my group are doing the QAYG method. A few of them have an irish chain pattern going on the back, which is cool.

My machine keeps chewing up the smaller pieces, which is really frustrating. I'm going to have to go out and buy a single throat plate, which should fix the problem, or so all my friends and Sally Collins (who works in SMALL pieces!) says. If it doesn't, I'm sending them a bill for the $40 part! Stupid to pay $2000 for a machine and then not have an open toed walking foot or a single throat plate. (Stepping off soap box now.)

I thought I broke my wrist yesterday. I didn't but darn me if I am unable to do any handwork at the moment without a lot of pain. I spent the last week and a half getting all my little applique pieces ready to go and now they are just staring at me in a very accusatory way. How can fabric do that!?! :shock:

Kimby: I love your dark Jane. I think that is going to be very striking once it is all done!

Rachel: I know I'm a few days late, but I say your 3rd photo of the quilt is the best. I find it visually interesting and the colors are quite exciting to me. Beautiful mock-up!! As for washing fabrics, I always wash my fabrics first. Mostly for health reasons but I would even if I weren't allergic to all the stuff they put in the fabric. I would hate to spend hundreds and hundreds of hours on a DJ quilt only to discover the dye ran or one of the fabrics shrunk horribly and caused it to pucker. Just give it a quick wash in warm water, dry, and fold. You really don't need to iron all 8 yards at once. Simply cut off what you need and then iron it. Trust me, it'll save you a ton of frustration.

Elle: Your quilt reminds me of a flower garden. I'm still drooling here!!

Leslie: Your quilt is turning out fantastic! I love the bright colors.

Sorry about the book-sized length of post. Teach me to miss a few days in here.

I don't mind a book at bedtime, Tiffany! LOL. Sorry to hear about your wrist, you didn't say what happened to make you think it was broken, but I hope it heals in double quick time so that you can get back to the applique soon.

I have a single stitch plate, but never needed to use it, because I sewed all my blocks with the quarter inch foot, not an open toed foot. Try doing that first, before you spend all that money.

Thank you Tiffany, I agree the third one is the most striking, that's the one I am going to aim for :) I ended up washing my fabric using the suggestion of the pillow case, it is drying right now. I will just fold it up and iron the pieces as I cut them off, otherwise I think I would drive myself crazy!! I also use a quarter inch foot and didn't see to have a problem with small pieces. Of course I also chain stitch everything so I never have loose threads at the beginning of my blocks. I keep a pile of 2 inch squares on hand and run those through at the end of each stitch I take, they then sit under my foot till I am ready to sew the next thing. This seems to help prevent fabric from getting sucked in. :)

Cheers!
Rachel