MMQAL: Assembling Border 7
Tuesday, October 22, 2013 at 5:25PM Hi there cuties! I can't believe it's over halfway through October. In three days, my little man will be five months old. He's currently practicing rolling over on the living room rug. I suppose that's a sign to get his Marcelle Medallion quilt basted and quilted!
But we'll talk about that next week, shall we. There are only two more weeks to go! Wow!
This week we're going to talk about Assembling Border 7. I have a few tips and tricks for chain-piecing those fiddly little cross pieces and then at the end of this post there are TWO giveaways!! Because I missed last week, I wanted to make up for it, so I made them a bit extra special. :)
To business!
Assembling Border 7
By this point, you should have all your little bits cut out. I put them on a post-it note and stuck it to the window in front of my cutting area, and then I put on an episode of Grand Designs and just cut, cut, cut. Dr Penny does not advise this strategy. Dr Penny suggests lots of rests and/or intermittent cups of tea so your hands aren't all stiff the next day. :)
Here they are organized by crosses (so each row is a finished cross).
There will be an equal number of square background pieces and square cross pieces. Go ahead and separate these out.
Put the squares right sides together. Chain piece as shown!
Press them with the seams toward the background. Normally, you'd go toward the darker seam, but I have made enough of these that I can say they lay a lot flatter if you press the seams here, outward.
Now there are the larger background pieces. Match those up to the pieces squares, right sides together of course!
Chain piece these too!
Now, when you've snipped your chain apart, press. Press these outward again, toward the background.
Add the second side, making sure you add that piece to the two-squares piece, and not the square-rectangle piece (as I have done several times, haha). Press outward after chain piecing.
Now for the cross centers! These need to be mostly centered on the cross so if there's a little bit of extra fabric just try and keep it centered and you'll be all right. Chain piece.
Press these seams toward the cross center.
Now you can add the top of the cross! Chain piece these exactly like before.
Press them, again, toward the cross center. They should now lie super flat.
The cross blocks have skinny strips in between them - you can chain piece those, but remember that the last cross block on each row has a large block on the other side, closest to the cornerstone block, so be mindful.
They do look nice, don't they!
Now, this week's GIVEAWAYS!
Link up (linky is below) and be sure to link up to an existing Marcelle Medallion quilt. It can be an instagram weblink, a flickr photo, a facebook page - whatever! It simply has to relate to this quiltalong and show where you are up to!
We will be choosing TWO winners this week!
The FIRST giveaway is a charm pack of Briar Rose, green perle 8 cotton quilting thread to match, two lots of Hello Tokyo buttons, and a special Turkish bowl (perfect for safety pins)!
The SECOND GIVEAWAY is a fat eighth set of Nordika (designed by Jeni Baker of In Color Order!), two balls of coordinating Valdani perle 12 quilting cotton thread, and a miniature Seam-Fix seam ripper!
Just link up below and we'll choose two winners by next week! Can't wait!!
Cheers!
Penny xx
Reader Comments (2)
Thanks for the tips on round 7, bracing myself for a mammoth cutting session now!
My crosses are all cut out and they are half-way pieced!