That does sound pretty, Gai. I had kind of thought about using varigated for my embroidery stitches.

That sounds really lovely Gai - quite an inspired variation. We will need pics, so you will have to ask her to show you on a regular basis so you can take photos of them.

Gai, Your friends idea sounds really lovely, will look good. Great how everyone keeps coming up with different ideas for us all.

I was thinking about that too. Have to see how it would turn out, but it does sound like it would be neat.

I thought I'd do a little trial with it to see how the varigated looks.

We needs pics, Ducky! (Please).

I will, Lesley. I just don't know when I'll do it.

Ducky, I use the Retayne to prewash fabric that bleed to fix the dye, that is what the instructions on the bottle say to do. I wouldn't use it on a finished quilt, because if the fabrics bled, it may fix it in the wrong fabric :shock:

I do throw in a color catcher or two with the completed quilt wash to make sure it absorbs any extra dye. Does that maw sense?

I am looking forward to seeing all the variations here.

I spent the day learning to use a Longarm and boy is it fun, now I really want my own....but till then, I am going to be renting this one to get my big quilts done!! I couldn't believe how fun quilting was! I generally dread that part, not anymore!!!

I finally got my book today and have spent the afternoon scanning the block patterns so I can enlarge them. The patterns are 6" for the 7" blocks, so I am assuming if I enlarge them by 150% to 9" they will work nicely on a 10" block. The problem with that is, of course, the whole block won't print on a piece of paper. So I'm thinking I can print just half a block lengthwise, and then copy trace it for both sides of the block. They all look to be able to be done that way. Does anyone see any problem with doing it that way? I really don't want to have to go to a copy shop and have them printed on larger paper.

Now if my fabric will just get here, I can figure out if this will work the way I think it will.

Judy - I spent most of my lunch hour enlarging the patterns for a 12 inch block - and even though my work copier has some larger paper, it was still pretty fiddly getting it all to fit! I did cut off some of the edges and decided that I would trace the missing portions from the other side instead of waste more time trying to make the enlargements perfect. The blocks all seem symmetrical, so - that's a long-winded way of saying that I don't see any problem with tracing from one side to the other.

I was thinking of doing 7" blocks and then adding sashing to make a twin-size quilt, but I will say that I like the looks of this project much better now that it is enlarged!

My batiks are in the wash right now with about 75 shout color-catchers... there is really only one deep fuchsia that I'm really worried about. Hopefully they will all survive the wash!