FrankenWhiggish Setting Options: To Further Complicate, Or To Finish In This Lifetime?

Hello, Quilting Friends, and Happy Thanksgiving weekend to those of you in the United States!  In between the cooking and the baking and the holiday decorating of the past few days, I've been spending an inordinate amount of time in my EQ8 quilting design software, exploring my options for the Frankenwhiggish Rose hand stitched needle turn appliqué blocks that I started in March of 2014 (you'll find that post from nearly a decade ago here).  

At this point, all that stands between me and the end of making the nine identical Whig Rose appliqué blocks is 48 broderie perse rosebuds and 96 fussy-cut stuffed berries.  However, I remain undecided about what I'm going to do with those nine blocks once they are finished.  I have tried out so many options in EQ8, each one more complicated than the last:

70 x 70 On-Point with Mariner's Compass and Pieced Setting Triangles

In the EQ8 rendering above, I've just duplicated a photo of one finished appliqué block and the EQ8 software lets me see how all nine appliqué blocks will look together when they are finished, combined with any combination of thousands of other blocks, borders, sashings, etc.  It's one of my favorite ways to use EQ8 software, and although designing on the computer can suck up a lot of time, every 10 minutes trying something out on the computer saves me weeks/months/years of cutting up fabric, sewing it together, putting it all together on the wall and then hating what it looks like!  So in this version of the quilt, I'd be making four mariner's compass blocks using scraps of my applique block fabrics mixed with other fabric scraps from the same color family and style.  The centers of the mariner's compass blocks could even be the birds from my Vervain Monado-Havana fabric, the luxe drapery fabric I've been chopping up for my broderie perse rosebuds.  Although the mariner's compass blocks look complicated, the EQ8 software lets me print out foundation paper piecing templates in exactly the right size for my quilt, directly onto newsprint paper (I get mine on Amazon here; this post contains affiliate links), which makes it so easy to get sharp, crisp, perfect points.  I'd appliqué the center circle to each compass.  As of right now, I like the way the pieced setting triangles create an illusion of scallop curves to frame the body of the quilt, but they feel a little heavy -- might reduce the scale and use smaller strips and squares for those so as not to overpower the dainty rosebuds and berries.  

But how nice it would be to just be FINISHED with this already once I have the blocks done?  This quilt, like the 8-year skirt project I finished a couple weeks ago, really has no purpose other than educational.  I wanted to try needle turn appliqué, and I know how to do it now, so it's a "win" for me already and I'd like to move on to something else!  So this is the other, simpler option I'm considering:

Keeping It Simple, 66 x 66 Straight Set with Harlequin Border

In this version, I trim my appliqué blocks to finish at 16" square and set them straight with a harlequin border and little X corner blocks to repeat the X shape of the tulip stems in the appliqué blocks.  Then I've slapped on a 6" wide plain outer border, for feather quilting or whatever.

Margaret Willingham's Reverse Appliqué Workshop, Charlotte Quilters' Guild + My Deco Quilt Progress

Happy Fall, Quilters!  Guess what -- I took an actual, in-person workshop with the Charlotte Quilters' Guild last month AND I finished my workshop block after I got home!  I'm so proud of myself for 1. Taking a day off, 2. Trying something new, 3. FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS during the workshop 😬, and then 4. Adapting what I learned in class to suit my personal preferences once I got home to my own studio.  

My 12 x 12 Block from Margaret Willingham's Reverse Appliqué Workshop

I'll tell you more about the workshop in a minute.  First, I have other news to share -- I've made some progress and gotten over the Cutting and Kitting Hurdle with my Deco Quilt that has been in-progress/abandoned for the past two years!  Well, better late than never.  I am supremely pleased with my clear plastic tote bag containing all of the pieces for all of the blocks, neatly organized and labeled in little Ziplock bags.  Our guild has lots of social sewing opportunities throughout the month and, as President of the guild, I try to attend as many of them as possible.  Having a project packed up and ready to go (versus strewn around my studio!) is my biggest challenge, but now I'll just be able to grab a Ziplock bag of block pieces and wheel my travel machine out the back door.  I have a feeling this project is about to pick up STEAM!

My Deco Quilt Completely Cut Out and Kitted, Block One Variations In Progress

Now that I've finished ALL of the cutting for my Deco Quilt, I am officially caught up with Week Two of the Deco QAL (Quilt-Along) that I committed to in the Fall of 2021!  😂. Week Two was cutting out all of the fabric pieces for the entire quilt.  I am like that last straggling marathon runner who crosses the place where the finish line used to be, two years after the race has ended...  Not only am I caught up with Week Two, but I'm also about a third of the way through with Week Three of the Deco QAL, which is the week where you piece all of the Block One log cabin variations.  All 16 blue/green log cabin blocks are finished and all 12 of the half blocks in both colorways are finished and I have 32 blue/purple log cabin blocks remaining to be sewn. The cutting for this quilt was monotonous, but the actual sewing is pretty easy.  I think that completely finishing this quilt top was supposed to be my OMG (One Monthly Goal) for November of 2021; maybe I can get it finished by November of 2023 instead!

My Jingle Applique BOM is Back On the Design Wall

I'm going to be BRIEF today, I promise.  I've got a lot on my agenda for this week, but managed to sneak in an hour in the studio yesterday to cut some new setting triangles for my Jingle BOM (Block of the Month) from 2013.  Jingle is my oldest work in progress and it bothers my son Anders that I started it five years ago and haven't finished it yet, but now that I've resolved the bleeding red dye dilemma I'm looking forward to finishing this quilt this year.  That's right, you heard it here first -- Finishing my Jingle quilt is a GOAL for 2018!

New Setting Triangles for My Jingle BOM!

Brief recap to bring you up to speed: Jingle is a free BOM designed by Erin Russek of One Piece At A Time in 2013, and as of this writing, the patterns and instructions are still available for free on her blog here.  All of the border block patterns are free; the only pattern you need to purchase is the large center medallion and that's just a $10 download from Erin's etsy shop here.  Totally worth it, IMO.  This is my very first applique project of any kind, and all of the applique is needle turned and hand-stitched according to the excellent, amazing, unbelievably awesome instructions and video tutorials on Erin's blog.  

So this is the way blocks for this quilt are set in Erin's original design:

Erin Russek's Layout for Jingle

I love the blocks, but I don't really love setting the center medallion on point with those gigantic plain setting triangles.  I want to set my center medallion straight and fill in with some pieced inner borders.

It took me awhile to pick up where I left off, by the way.  I had cut out all of the setting triangles from the red poinsettia fabric originally, but now I've decided that I like it better with alternating red and green triangles, hence the green triangles that I cut out this morning.  There was a moment of panic, thinking that my triangles might have shrunken severely when I was soaking all the excess red dye out of them -- and then I remembered that I have Kaye England's special setting triangle ruler for Nifty Notions, and that's what I had used to cut my poinsettia setting triangles.  I really need to leave myself better notes when I pack projects away in "time out!"

Specialty Ruler for Cutting Setting Triangles

What I love about this ruler is that you can use it to cut both your setting triangles AND your side triangles from the same cut width of fabric, with the fabric grain oriented properly on both triangles, and it does the math for you based on the finished size of the blocks you're setting on point.  So in my case, these blocks are finishing at 9" and the ruler is clearly marked to indicate that 9" blocks require a 7 1/4" strip.  Easy-peasy, fairly fast once I refreshed my memory on how to use the ruler (instructions are available here), and more accurate than trying to cut out gigantic squares that are bigger than my rulers and then attempt to cross-cut them diagonally into QSTs and HSTs.  I do love my fancy toys...

The other thing I needed to refresh my memory on was how I am supposed to sew these oversize triangles to my blocks once I've cut them out. There are lots of tutorials out there explaining the math for cutting out side triangles and corner triangles from cross-cut squares, and explaining why the setting triangles need to be QSTs (with the straight of grain on the LONG side) and why the corner triangles need to be HSTs (with the straight of grain on the SHORT sides), but this is the video I found that also explained how to sew these oversized triangles to your quilt blocks once you've cut them out:

I know this is a "no brainer" for some of my readers, but one of the main reasons I document these things in my blog is for my own benefit -- so I can find those instructions and tutorials again six years from now, when I can't remember how I did it the last time!

My next step for Jingle -- and this is my To Do on Tuesday goal for the week -- is to assemble the on-point block borders with the setting triangles and corner triangles, trim the excess fabric from the setting triangles, and measure them.  My center applique medallion has an oversized, untrimmed block background, and I think it's best to see what side the borders will finish at first and then work backwards to figure out what size borders will fit between that on-point block border and the center medallion.  

Maybe I will even be able to use one or more of my Accuquilt GO! Baby dies to cut out those inner pieced borders! 

Today I'm linking up with:

• ·       Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework http://quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.com
• ·       Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts http://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com  
• ·       Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts http://www.cookingupquilts.com/
• ·       Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt http://lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com/
• ·       Moving it Forward at Em’s Scrap Bag: http://emsscrapbag.blogspot.com.au/
• ·       BOMs Away at Katie Mae Quilts: www.katiemaequilts.com
• To-Do Tuesday at Stitch ALL the Things: http://stitchallthethings.com
• ·       WOW WIP on Wednesday at www.estheraliu.blogspot.com