Pattern Progress

Okay, I'm back with another quick update on how the class is going. The worst is over. Making the pattern and freezer paper template is brutal, but today we'll start working with fabric. Let the fun begin!

When I finished my pattern yesterday, it looked like this.

From there, I took the vellum transparency to the local FedEx/Kinko's and had two copies created at a 1:1 ratio, and then had one of them enlarged 250%. My final quilt should be something on the order of 35 x 42 inches...a good size.

Then, I went back to class and used one of the regular copies to shade in the colors. It's a little easier to pick out the birds that way. Mainly, this just helps when I start placing fabric with the individual pieces. I'll make one bird more pink and one more orange so that it doesn't end up looking like a two-headed bird. Also, I'll make the head and neck of the orange bird more bright than the body in order to keep clear what's what. The red marks will help me to keep those pieces straight.

You might notice the green section in the lower left corner. Ann suggested making that in the same color as the background just to help define the neck of the bird. It might end up looking strange, and so we'll cross that color bridge as we come to it.

The next step was to create the freezer paper template that I'll use to make the quilt. This requires taping the enlarged pattern to a window in "lightbox" fashion. I've done this at the quilt shop in the past. Yesterday, I brought everything home. It was my attempt to beat the traffic (only slightly) and to have a more comfortable environment where I could embark on this tedious process. If you're interested in how this is accomplished, I encourage you to read this post from my first go-round in the class.

It took hours, but when it was ready, it looked like this:

Today we'll be cutting everything apart in sections and we'll start adding fabrics. We first cut it into large sections (outlined in pink on the image above), and as we work with them, we'll cut them into smaller sections (outlined in orange). The yellow outline marks the edges of the pattern.

Since I slept better last night, I was up early enough this morning to fill the bird feeders and pick enough chive blossoms to start the chive blossom vinegar. You can read my post about how to do this right here.

It'll be so "chivey" and pretty when it's finished two weeks from now. When I picked the blossoms this morning, I didn't have quite enough to start on the chive blossom jam/jelly (not sure which it will be). That's just fine because I'm not in a position to do it yet. By Monday, I should have enough and I'll get started then.

As for today...bring on the fabric and the fun! I'm going to try to get in some stitching before I need to leave.