It's time for the next installment of the Medallion Magic QAL! I love seeing my quilt grow now that we've started sewing 😊 If you haven't started yet, there's still time to join in and I'd love to see your Medallion Magic quilt, too.
I'm aiming for this to be a slow, relaxed quilt along, with not so much to do each month that you can't keep up. We're all too busy to be stressing over keeping up with a QAL! Here's the schedule of events:
January 15th - Gather fabrics and pattern
February 15th - Cutting
March 15th - Center star
April 15th - Borders 1 and 2 - today!
May 15th - Borders 3 and 4
June 15th - Borders 5, 6 and 7
August 15th - Finish party link up opens
If you don't have your pattern yet, you can pick up your copy from my Etsy shop in either PDF or printed versions.
I know that adding two (or even three) borders in one month sounds like a lot, but one of my favourite things about this medallion quilt design is that 4 of the 7 borders are just plain fabric, which gives the pieced borders room to breathe. I've always found most medallion quilts are so busy it's hard to focus on anything and I intentionally designed Medallion Magic to allow the pieced borders to shine.
Here's my original Medallion Magic, made in Northcott fabrics:
And here is how my new Island Batik version looks with borders 1 and 2 added. I love how bright and airy it feels with the light background!
These strip blocks come together quickly thanks to the magic of strip piecing 😊 Isn't it great when we can use simple strategies to make blocks that look like they took a long time to make?
I love the springtime feel of these greens and purples, all from the Paisley Park line, especially now that we're in the mud stage of spring here in Newfoundland. My tulips have started coming up, though, so I'm looking forward to seeing colours that are more exciting than brown sometime in the future.
I've always loved pinwheel blocks and this double pinwheel is no exception. These corner blocks have quite a few small pieces, so an accurate ¼" seam allowance is really important.
Andrea, of 3rd Story Workshop, recently shared a great explanation of how to check and fix your seam allowance so check that out if you're not sure about yours. I may still be trying to zero in on the perfect ¼" with my new Janome 6700 (which I keep meaning to write a post about, but it hasn't happened yet). I naively assumed that using the ¼" foot that came with the machine would give me a perfect seam allowance, but it was off by quite a bit. We won't talk about how many things I sewed before I realized that...We also won't talk about what a beginner level mistake that was. I should definitely have known better.
That's it for this month. I'm looking forward to seeing your first couple of borders!
Getting a 1/4" seam is tricky and every machine is a little bit different. I just got back from teaching at a guild and travel machines can be more challenging for people to use for accurate piecing because they don't use them as much and aren't familiar with them. Anyway, I love how your new version is coming together. Such fun contrast to your original quilt!
ReplyDeleteI hear you on the 1/4" scant seam. This quilt is so dynamic, and seeing it in the positive/negative versions so striking. Love those double pinwheels too!
ReplyDeleteLovely pattern and quilts. They looks so different done in dark and light. I specially like the pinwheel border. As a paper piecer thankfully I don't have to deal with perfect 1/4" :)
ReplyDelete-Soma
Ta da...I finished.
ReplyDelete