Silk

Macybaby, purple is my least favorite colour too. However, I like how it matches with the beautiful emerald green. Your block is very striking! And there's a lot of people out there who loves purple (I think it's like cheese... you love it or you hate it, there's no middle grown )

Frustratedquilter40, yours is going to be a 'pretty in red'. This pattern is so versatile that it's difficult to choose between so many options...

Last night I was choosing colors for the chains of my next blocks, and while I played with reds and greens something 'popped' in my mind... wouldn't be wonderful a totally Christmas quilt in this pattern too? I imagine bright reds on the main chains and greens on the secondary pattern, and more subtile prints inside the circles... maybe when (if) I finish mine I will try this version

I also love the simplicity of the 2 colors quilts (blue/cream or red/white). Infinite options!

I'm a little concerned because I have noticed that one of my blocks is slightly bigger than the other. Have I got to square the blocks? Or this will be corrected/disguised when adding the sashing?

Silk

I couldn't sleep... had to draw the christmassy block to know how it would look!

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I think I'm becoming a bit obsessed with this pattern...

Another question about my current project: Most of my low volume fabrics are florals. I didn't want to buy new fabrics because I have enough scraps for this quilt, but now I'm thinking if it would be better to purchase some fat quarters with other kind of prints (geometric, plaids, lines) to add more variety.

Please, tell me your thoughts about this subject: Do you think it would make a difference? Or maybe it's not worth it (after all, they are whites/low volume, most of the pieces are really small and they are well mixed, so I'm not sure if the eye will catch up the details in the overall view.

oksewglad

Just curious...when making the 4P's are you pressing seams open or to the side? Got my first strip sewn tonight...yeah!

frustratedquilter40

On my 4 patches I twirled the center seam so one half goes to the left the other side the right. I hope that makes sense. Not sure if it is right or not guess I will see when we put the block together.

Macybaby

I normally twirl my centers to, I press to the dark for the first pressing, and then twirl for the second. Because of how this goes together, it didn't really cause any problems with assembly. The problems started with putting the larger sections together. I prefer to nest my seams, so far I've never done a quilt and pressed the seams open.

Kind of funny because I've mostly sewn clothing so pressing seams open was more the norm for me.

Silk - I'm not sure what you are refering to as your "low volumn" colors - is that for the larger background, or the chain? If it's for the background, especially the part inside the circle - I think geometrics would add some really intersting looks, but you may have to be careful about cutting to keep the pattern matching. Like how the "Pink circles" looks in your sketch.

I still am not decided what I want to do, but did put the purples away. I just can't warm up to the way that block looks and this quilt is too big to try to force myself to keep going with that.

I really didn't want to go scrappy, but I've got a lot of smaller yardage so that may be what I need to do. So while I'm trying to decide, I'll finish up putting together a few tops that are almost to the floppy stage.

oksewglad

Thanks for the 4P input...I usually press to one side except when doing smaller pieces. I have found lots of triangle joins benefit from open seams, but one sided pressing easier to match. I have never twirled the centers, maybe time to start. In looking at the overall construction i don't we will have a lot of bulk at intersections.

Macybaby..This is too big of a quilt to not like what you are doing. Better to stop now before you get too far. Even though I'm using scraps for the circles and chains and border I cringed when I bought all that fabric for the backgrounds.

jclinganrey

I do what Frustrated Quilter & Macy Baby said; I spin the center of my 4-patches.

Silk

Macybaby, sorry for the confusion. The sketch is not my actual project, just another one I'd like to do some day. My current project is all scrappy (you can see a pair of my blocks in the previous page). I'm using the low volume fabrics in the background, and I wondered if there was too much florals or it was not noticeable (as they are all very light colors).

jclinganrey

I think your floral backgrounds are lovely. They're overall light so I think they work just fine.

jclinganrey

Question to the group: do you want me to post the steps every 2 weeks as I first suggested or would you prefer something else? i.e., every week, every 3 weeks, etc. I know, early on, someone posted a link to all the steps so I don't know how many people have everything already or are following along as originally intended.

Please let me know how you want to proceed - - -