When starting a quilt of this magnitude, you have to “gain your bearings”, meaning you have to have a method to your madness, have a direction to drive this project!
Choosing the right fabrics is key for the rounds of the rosettes. After only a couple rounds of the rosette, I have figured out one key note that I want to pass on. I also want to share my method to anyone who may be trying to figure out what works. *Disclaimer, what works for me, may not work for you.
Fabric selection. If you really don’t want muddy rosettes you will need contrast between each round. These pieces are small. Here is my start:

These two colors are perfectly porportioned together and contrast just right. But notice the dark teal below. Once I added this, I realized my first mistake. This is the largest piece of the rosette. This becomes very dominate. I highly recommend the hexagon to be fussy cut out of a print that is multicolor that you coordinate throughout the rings of the rosette. I am going to call this a mistake. It will be fine, but it sure is a lot of teal. It overpowers all the other work I done. Contrast is perfect, but too much color. Your eye goes right to it.

See how much this really disrupts the La Passacaglia? The meaning of the word basically translates to harmony of music. That teal OVERPOWERS!. This should have been a print. Where ever I put this in the quilt, it is going to stand out loudly. I like loud, but this volume will be louder than other cogs. Lesson learned.
I have had trouble at the begining trying to match my corners perfectly. The more I have stitched, the more accurate I have become in this. And like someone pointed out to me, once the papers are removed, it will be perfectly stitched together.
My process:
There are two types of cuts, one of which is fussy cutting. I took note on something Tula Pink spoke of in one of her videos. She does not purchase fabric for fussy cutting EPP unless she can get several cuts or the repeats are many. She designs her fabric this way too. I have utilized that technique with the striped fabric. The repeat of the bands was just a hair longer than the star tips.
The second type of cut would be making the most of your fabric. Strips. I cut a strip first.

The great thing about EPP, it is very forgiving, my strips are not perfect and that is ok. These templates have 3/8 seam allowance. When you hand stitch these, the seam allowance is completely lost and therefore that precision becomes irrelevant.
I subcut my strip. I was able to do this with the stripes too. I just cut rectangles with the 3/8 inch seam allowance included where I wanted the paper piece to be set.

Then I glue baste my paper.

The key to this step is rolling the fabric over the piece tight! If your corners are sloppy, it will be harder when all these angles are stitched together.

And it is now ready to stitch.
And then you have little scraps of strip left over. I am trimming those down as I go and adding them to my new bin of 1 1/2 inch scrap squares.

There will probably be more lessons I learn as I proceed. I will share as I go.
And then there is a quilt top, jelly roll race.

I have had this quilt top stitched to this point since July of 2019. I have been in search of the perfect backing. I have found nothing in the past 2 years. I had a thought. The bolt of muslin I have is specially formulated. It is to be used for dying your own fabrics. I have never dyed fabric and and thought about this. I already have the muslin, so no fabric purchase necessary. This would be about 3 yards of fabric at a cost of about $30. But for $3 I can dye my own batch and match this just as good as any solid.

Here is my morning muslin! I washed and dried this last night to prep for this morning.

I am attempting to set the color with vinegar and heat.
And here it is muslin in the morning turned to afternoon sun!

This was relatively easy. I had everything except the dye. I will be washing this later today to see how much of this is retained. I hear rit dye washes out over time. Hmmmm. Any of you textile goddesses out there have a remedy to prevent this let me know. I tried to set the colors with cold water, salt, vinegar and then dry in the heat of the dryer. I presume this will work good enough to keep this from bleeding. Unsure….
In reflection of goals last week,
- Finish binding the Elizabeth Hartman quilt
- Gift the Elizabeth Hartman quilt and the churn dash quilt
- Get one round sewn on the rosette for the La Passacaglia
- Select fabric for the next round of the orange rosette above
I met and exceeded my goals!!!!! Horah!
My longterm goals are,
- Work on the last round of the tatted doily
- Bind the Midnight Alaska quilt
- Sew the hexagon quilt top
- Start quilting on the Me and My Sister Designs quilt top
- Work some on my 365 Quilt Block Challenge
All of these would be nice to cross off my list, they are still my long standing list.
My goals for this week:
- Finish one rosette for La Passacaglia
- Sew backing for the yellow jelly roll race quilt
- Start quilting the jelly roll race quilt with a pantograph
My UFO piles shrink, my WIP piles grow, I smile with finishes!!!
Thanks for stopping in and reading my blog!