Again with the quilting.

One of the toughest parts of getting the quilt going was deciding how I was going to get that intricate pattern for the blank squares on to the fabric.  

First off, the pattern only showed half the design, so I had to do a mirror image and put them together.  That ordinarily wouldn't be a problem but for the hardware issues I have been having lately.  Once my main computer was repaired on Friday, no problem getting that done as you can see.

But, how do I transfer the design to the fabric?  I thought for a very long time before I made the quilt sandwich.  I decided that rather than the heat transfer or a chalk line drawing or even regular pencil or any other of the myriad ways people do this, I was going to go with the Press and Seal route.

I lay a nice smooth sheet of Glad Press and Seal wrap, the kind that tacks to itself, over the pattern sheet I made, and trace the desing with a washable marker.  Then, I take the pattern paper off and simply press the Press and Seal to the fabric, making sure that the square corner matches.  And off I go.

 One of the lines is a little off, but this quilt, a lot is just slightly off.  It will be fine.  You see how there appear to be little flowing wrinkles in the fabric above the flowers?  The fabric is adhered just slightly to the tacky wrap.  It absolutely stayed in place through the whole process.

 All stitched with the wrap on

 And with the wrap removed. If you see tiny bits of blue, those are tiny tiny bits of the plastic that I did not come off when I removed the wrap.  You do have to work a little to get it all off, but I think it's well worth it.  The rest of this process was just so easy and quick.  Any bits that remain at the end of the quilting will disappear in the wash.

Only one small problem.  I oriented the embroidered fan the same way that the pieced fan sat.

As you can clearly see, that is not how the pattern shows it.  I was about half done when I realized my error, and had to have a little time out while I thought about what to do.  I decided to complete the square as is but the rest of the squares are going to be laid on correctly so that the lovely v shape that spans pieced and embroidered squares can happen.  

Its not a perfect solution, but I have always considered perfection highly overrated.  The point, as ever, for me, is the learning, the act of making it, and the joy of using something you made with your own hands.