Here are my blocks for Week 5. The official week begins February 8th, so I'm posting these for those who are working ahead.

I must be honest...I hate the way I3 turned out...those circles just look plain weird.

RS6 is a challenge - I urge everyone to go to the Cutebuns tutorial on y-seams, and Lacelady's tutorial on inset seams. They are extremely helpful. My RS6 came out...good enough...but still far from perfect!! I hope we all are able to share tips of how we were able to achieve what we did. I will say for me the key was taking my time, not being impatient, and just going at it ever so slowly. I had the tutes up on the computer and just went back and forth with them.

For E2, I chose to use freezer paper applique. I pretty much followed the technique from "thatquilts" blog.

And same with D2. I did 'needleturn' applique and it worked like a charm! There are so many little curves and points. I just put the freezer paper on the right side of the print fabric, and turned under as I went along. They say "needle" turn, but I found I mostly used my fingernails!

And for those of you who haven't seen it yet, we have started a "virtual section" for all these cyber sew items. So you can go there and find the tutes I just referenced.

Whooo hoooo I have two of these done maybe I can be close to the top on posting!!!! Yeah!!!

Your blocks look great! I found the same thing with RS-6...you just have to go slow and pay a lot of attention to the key block. I don't know if anyone else is hand piecing this one or not, but I just started at the top and worked my way down. This block has taken me the longst so far at about 7 hours, but I am happy with the way it turned out.

ESQ your blocks look great!

Oh my, seven hours for one block. I need to get moving on week 4 so I can devote the time that maybe needed for this one.

I think the 7 hours was for hand piecing??? I do it by machine, and probably spent a little over an hour...give or take!

Yep, I am hand piecing. Most of the blocks only take about 3 hours or so, it's just that with RS-6 I had to keep refering back to the key block each time I added another piece. Some of the pieces had really odd angles to them so I had to keep close track of what I was doing.

Here are my week 5's I thought that triangle was the hardest up to this point too, but it got done. I don't know if it would have if it had taken me 7 hours to do it though!

Lesley, yours are so pretty. I love the blue..wow, what an eye-catcher!!

Woohoo! Rach and Lesley! your blocks look wonderful! I have 2 of them done sooo far, but haven't attempted the triangle...yet... I'm going to go back and check those tutes you suggested Rachael..hopefully I will have time to work on them some more tomorrow.

You might find RS 6 easier to do if you try TR 9 (week 6) first. Plus you will be one up for the following week!

Rach and Lesley, great blocks! I don't know if I would spend 7 hours on one block, but then I guess I would not give up either!

esq and lacelady those blocks are fabulous :thumbup:

Here are my week 5 blocks and triangle. That tri. was a bugger and mine wants to lean for some reason! LOL

Don't worry about your triangle, it will straighten up when it's in the quilt! And so far, it's one of the hardest I have done (64), so now you have that one under your belt, you are laughing.

Jan, they are beautiful! I just love your colors..your blocks always look so crisp and perfect! I am going to tackle the triangle today along with the star block.....(if I don't get hijacked by my DH)

That's great to hear about RS6...that was one challenging triangle!!

Janstar, as usual...(starting to sound like a mantra in my head...) your blocks are terrific. Your I3, as well as Lacelady's are just perfect...I think I'm going to choose a relative solid to make one out of. We shall see what my mood is like.

You're scaring me! LOL

Wow. Your guys rock. The blocks are great.

janstar luv your blocks :thumbup:

You guys are all so sweet and it's good to hear about that drated RS6. Boy, it tested you but it all came out in the wash.

Lace, you have done that many? Good for you! I was ahead until week 7 and there are 2 blocks I don't know where to start so I won't. F9 and G11 and I4.

Esq, Lacelady and Jan - Great blocks!!!

I haven't started week 4 yet!

Sorry, where will I find the "virtual section?"

Would like to make quilt you show in your Avatar....what fabrics did you use and please what is the pattern?

LOL, that's three, Jan. With F 9, I started by doing the four curved seams. I did two opposite sides first, pinning in the centre and at both ends, then several pins inbetween. Then I did the other two opposite sides. A bit of steam in the iron sorted out a couple of little wrinkles, then I appliqued all the leaf shapes afterwards.

G11 sew the background blocks together like a nine patch, then the diamonds I appliqued on afterwards.

G13, I haven't done it yet, but I think I would tackle it with four curved seams on those central blocks, then sew together as per a nine patch.

I hope that helps you get back on with them.

Hi - the virtual sections are on the bottom of the home page...under the user defined sections. Click on that, then click on the one that starts with Jane Stickle...when you get it, click on subscribe and you will get all the updates for the threads that are in that category.

I DID IT!!! I DID IT!!!! I DID RS6!!! Yippee! I have 2 more blocks to finish for the week and then I'll post. It isn't perfect, but it is acceptable to me at least for now. I might redo if I get alot better at the inset and Y seams, but for now...whew!!!

way to go sandpat :-D :thumbup:

Yea for you sandpat! That is a great block to have under your belt :)

Hey there Sandpat - any suggestions you can offer for those who aren't there yet??

Thanks for the help Lace. I wrote it all down! Any help is appreciated.

Way to go Patti! That was a major acheivement huh?

Well here are my 5 blocks for Week 5. RS6 was an absolute nightmare, I ended up working from the top down and its really wonky. Guess thats one for week 6 when we have time off.

ha ha it looks even worse in the photo :oops:

Well done, a great one to have under your belt.

I will say, if it's wonky...I don't see it! Your blocks are stunning Elle!

Elle, those are beautiful..even RS6! It looks like it just is waiting to be a part of the whole, then it will straighten up. At least that is what I'm telling mine :oops:

The only hints I might have for RS6 is to go read Lacelady's and Cute Buns tutes on the seams to start with. I could NEVER make sense of the foundation pattern on the software....so I went to thatquilt.com and looked at her sections. I couldn't get the software to regroup and print (for some reason..I'm sure operator)...so I printed off several copies of the block as an outline drawing. I marked, then cut the sections that I thought I would work well for me. I cut up the outline drawing of the block in those sections and used that for my foundation. That and then.....a few choice bad words seems to get it together for me.

Well you got it together, Elle, and all your inset/Y seams look good, you just seem to have less background on the right, and more on the left. If you intend to try again, you might be able to salvage some of it, and just sort out the middle section. At least you now have the experience of doing those insets, and it's great to have them done. All the other blocks look really good in your fabrics, your quilt is going to look so good when its done.

I don't think its operator error about the software - it doesn't want to print out any foundation groups when there is an inset or Y section. It's a shame, as sometimes most of it can be done via foundation. I've redrawn a couple and will post them when we get nearer to the relevant week if it helps.

Some of them do need to be redrawn I think Leslie...its pretty easy to just chop up the outline drawing of the block once we figure out the best way to regroup.

Hi everyone, back again. Thanks for all your lovely comments, but truly in person that triangle does not look good. However Patti, great minds think alike, I was looking at the print out block and thinking you could cut that in several ways and get a foundation pattern. So I will try and let you know, only not yet, I am still stressed from the first time LOL

This morning I finished the other blocks for this week...so here they are...now farm chores for the rest of today..

Yuck...I see the bottom left side of the triangle is off... :(