My Dandelion Quilt - Sky and Wishies

Once my dandelion quilt design is done, I start sewing it from the top, since those are the simplest blocks.  The sky, which is mostly blue, or blue nine-patches with wishies (dandelion seeds aloft), offers little to blog about, so I'll also use this post to describe fabric prep, the way that I document my cutting and double-check my measurements, and a few early mistakes. 

PREP WORK

Tossing a color-catcher in the wash with it, I wash, dry, starch, and iron the fabric.  I re-calculate the cuts I think I'll need to make, and made a spreadsheet to keep track of them, intending to take notes and fix mistakes along the way so I'll end with an accurate cutting guide. 

Wishies!

A LITTLE MISTAKE

I think I'm being kinda clever when I sew my wishie strips to a long sky strip and then cut the units out.  Surely this is easier than cutting dozens of little rectangles, right? 

Well, it is easier... to make a clumsy cut and destroy TWO units!  Rosanne (quilting mentor and occasional popcorn-gobbling-spectator to my three-ring sewing show) advises me to cut the dozens of rectangles next time.  Cut them, square them off, and then align them properly with the band, sew, press, square again... it's boring, but do it right.

Lesson learned and not too costly. 

And here's me squaring off the wishie units. The smallest piece is a 2" square finished, so this mini nine-patch should be 6.5" square.  Rosanne happens to have a ruler that exact size, which I use to trim the units to size.  But if I didn't have that, I'd use my larger ruler: the distance from any raw edge to its nearest parallel seam should be 2.25". 

Five of these nine-patch units go together with four plain units to make another, larger 9-patch, which I square and trim to 12.5". 

These colors are as crisp and refreshing as ice in a glass, but I can't wait to get to the greens and yellows, to drench the quilt in sunshine! 

A BIG MISTAKE

A bigger mistake came at the confluence of two small mistakes: one is the mistake of cutting small pieces before cutting the big ones, and the other is the mistake of cutting and sewing after 11pm.  (I have my no-sewing-after-11 rule for a reason!) 

This quilt design has three large appliqués, which must be applied to three large plain blocks: one blue, one light green, and one medium green.  So when cutting those colors, I need to cut a strip at 24.5" wide, and sub-cut a square of 24.5" x 24.5".  Well, while doing the blue fabric, I cut my smaller cuts first across the whole WOF, which leaves me with not enough to cut a whole 24.5" wide strip! 

So I have to piece it together from my various blue scraps. I get a 24.5" square in the end, but put together very oddly, with uneven rectangles and seams everywhere!  When I finally appliqué the top dandelion, I will have to decide whether to cut away the blue behind it to reduce bulk, or leave it as is.  I suspect I'll cut it away, because I won't want those intersecting seams to create weird wear patterns on the appliqué over time and washing. 

Lesson learned: next time, cut the largest strips first.  After the subcut, I'll have the rest of the strip available for future, smaller cuts, if needed. 

pieces of sky!