awesome!

Just beautiful Dee. 

I remember seeing that when you first showed it, how stunning! I bet there are many, many hours of work in that.

thank you/  Empire Place.  The pattern design is great - at least pretty.  The instructions not so much.  You definitely need to know how to paper piece and general piecing.  I read through her instructions about putting the blocks together.  She at least acknowledges that there is a large amount of bulk at the bottom and top points, but only says to press the seams which ever way they lay the flattest.  really?  that's it?  I saw a completed quilt at the Dallas show and some of the intersections looked like a bent knuckle or little mountain pocking above the surface of the quilt and many of the points did not match by as much as 3/8".  And she got a 3rd place ribbon!  Really?  (that's another discussion)

Anyway I think the ladies who designed the pattern were more concerned with how it looked on paper than with how it would be constructed.  I've been worrying with how the blocks would go together since I finished the first block and it was obvious how many pieces were meeting at the point.  Just with the black and white "sashing" there are 2 each side of the center colored section x 2 sides =4 x 2 =8 folded layers with the seam allowance on each block.  Now double that for 2 blocks = 16 layers. Then add in the paper piecing of the main part of the block all of which are constructed in 4 parts.  so now add 2 fabrics plus 2 seam allowances in 2 blocks (8) for a grand total of 24 layers.   You get the idea.  I had problems even sewing my narrow sashing on evenly because of the thickness (broke a needle last night and that was just with 12 layers), there is NO WAY you can sew through 24 layers and have them fold over nicely.  If they had been decent engineers, they could have modified how the blocks were constructed and instead of putting the black and white on the block they could have made them true sashing and cut down on a lot of those layers.

I remember you starting this.  It looks great.  Good idea to have the narrow sashing.  Those thick seams can cause an issue when you are quilting, too.   Nice job!

Wow!  Dee, super impressive!

i think your idea of a narrow sashing is great and definitely helpful with getting this together.

Dee in TX (DBRADFOR3) said:

If they had been decent engineers, they could have modified how the blocks were constructed and instead of putting the black and white on the block they could have made them true sashing and cut down on a lot of those layers.

whispering: or you could have redrafted it.    heh heh heh

Pirate (PIRATE_SR) said:

whispering: or you could have redrafted it.    heh heh heh

this was  a test to see who would suggest I should have done it.  I was giving you and Judy in Ohio equal odds.  You won.

And I did think about it.  And I if I ever do this pattern again, I definitely will (not very likely).  I did not re-draft it mostly because I purchased the pattern & papers because I didn't want to think too hard about it.  I was in the mood for paint by numbers quilting.... where the only decisions where what fabrics to put where.

Dee in TX (DBRADFOR3) said:

I was in the mood for paint by numbers quilting.... where the only decisions where what fabrics to put where.

I definitely hear ya on that.

Busy all day with guests so I'm just now getting to this "party".

Judges at the Dallas show are not very picky, are they?  Or perhaps there were not many entries in the category this quilt was entered in and so it placed well for that reason.  Your description of the baby t_ts in the quilt were quite vivid ... humph!! How did the person have the gall to even enter that quilt?!  Must be related to the head of the judging committee.

I have been forewarned so I will avoid the pattern. I am at the age where I do not want to re-draft any foundation pieced pattern's papers ... nosireebob, not fun at all.

I've purchased a Kaffe Fassett kit and will happily foundation piece one of his strip quilts one of these days instead of trying to emulate your skilled piecing.

Part my new reality is accepting what I cannot do anymore.