Years ago, a quilt instructor told the class that "A pattern is only a suggestion". Great words of wisdom that I have carried through my quilting journey. It sounds as if many of you are taking that approach to the My Small World pattern. I am looking forward to starting the My Small World project in tandem with Q Bd member hobbykat1955. We are waiting until Fall, when I have returned home from my lake house and have access to my fabric stash. In the meantime, I am following this post and making note of all the little suggestions. Thanks for everyone's input!

Can't wait to start our project and see how each of our selections in fabrics are so different. Seems with this pattern we have allot of leeway in tweaking and switching a design around...Can't wait, though I know you want summer to go as slow as possible before you have to return home.

We will wait till Fall :D :D I'm not sewing either, the weather is either too hot or like today, too nice to stay in!

Those really are words of wisdom!!

I love this barn block

Nita...great wisdom... Very rarely do I make a quilt to pattern specs. With both GTSB and Happy Birds, I modified the patterns to my likings. Enjoy the remaining vacation time, Nita.

Looking forward to seeing all the MSW project postings. I may start GW in the Fall since I unpacked my project box. I'll post a picture of my colorway soon....

Halfway through the hexie hill. I've never made any hexies using the pre-made heavier paper forms, but they do help a lot. [ATTACH=CONFIG]614302[/ATTACH] Thanks for the thought about not doing the New York Beauty. It doesn't look much like a hill to me anyway. I may make some trees instead - thanks for the tip, Anael!

So so pretty!!!!! Really lovely work, Mkotch...

Ohhhhhhhhh your hexies are gorgeous!!!
You're welcome Mkotch! I did make some trees too.

Will admit that the hexi hills was one of the blocks that i thought I might "tweek", since I have zero experience with hexis. But after seeing Mkotch's lovely hexi hills, I think i'll need to pull up my big girl panties and tackle those hexis. Where would I purchase the pre-made heavier paper forms?
Nice work, Mkotch ...

I got my 1/2" hexie papers on etsy.com. They came from China. :-)

Thanks, QuiltnNan. I just found out that both quilts brought $120 each in the donation auction I sent them to. To top it off a dear friend of mine received the barn quilt as a gift from her husband and daughter. Coming from a family of quilters she was delighted with it. I didn't get a finished pic of it. I often don't make any 2 quilts the same, but the barn quilt is one I am considering to do for myself!

I use this free printable graph paper. One can create any size following the directions. I print mine onto freezer paper cut into 8.5 x 11 sheets making sure I print on the dull side of the freezer paper. Yes you have to cut them out, but they are free! Not only that one can press the shiny side onto the wrong side of your fabric and reuse the template 2 or 3 times or until it doesn't adhere to the fabric. Use card stock to print on and you get a more rigid template. Make sure you use the same type of for each project as there is a difference in thickness between paper and cardstock.

https://www.incompetech.com/graphpaper/hexagonal/

Congrats OK on this silent auction! Too bad you don't have a finished picture. How did you quilt the barn quilt?

Thanks, Anael. I machine stitched 3 or 4 gently curved dark blue horizontal lines in the dark blue and at the bottom I stitched about 1 x-stitches in a green variegated thread with a straight stitch. Just enought to help hold it together and balance with the stitching done at the top. I left the moon out...the barn then stayed as the focal point. I played with adding a crescent moon...Maybe next time.

Oh there will be a next time then! Don't forget to take pictures next time :D :D The quilting sounds nice. It didn't need much quilting because I guess it won't be used very much ;)

Oh, I am enjoying My Small World soooo much! Today I put the first two sections together. I only took a picture of the first one, but I am looking forward to tomorrow already![ATTACH=CONFIG]614373[/ATTACH]Our town is known for its granite quarries and sculptures, so the pictures are from a t-shirt I've been saving for years. I have a few more snippets of that shirt for other sections of the quilt.

Looks awesome Mkotch.... So cool to design it after your own town. Statues are perfect touch... Looks so cool. And, I love your sun... Going to be a neat quilt when done.. Great job!

Oh wow Mkotch!! That's a stunning world! Love those statues and the sun!!

Mkotch, your small world is going to be fabulous with all of those wonderful colors.

Teen, it is so nice to see you posting again...welcome back! We will look forward to photos of your new home construction.

I finally (after a couple of years in progress) finished binding my GW yesterday. After reading recent posts here, I am curious about the Bring Me Flowers pattern.

Mkotch..terrific interpretation of the design. And this exemplifies why we love to quilt..we can use an idea and personalize it to make it our own.

Hi, jmoore!!! Thank you! They should start framing house next week... I'll share pic then... Good job on finishing up GW...woohoo!

Bring Me Flowers pattern is so cute! I have that kitted and ready to go, too. It's a lot of curved piecing. In case you are interested, Stitchin Heaven is starting a BOM of this pattern in January. Also Green Tea & Sweet Beans pattern BOM should start in a couple of months, I think.

Teen, It is nice to see you again. Can't wait to see pictures of your new home.

Hi, Blue Bell!!! Can't wait to share new home pics with you. Hope all is well with you...

I went for a ride today. Look what I witnessed......never seen this before. It's a barn swallow and chick.

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Oh sweet! Great picture....

Here is a pic of me... A rainbow over our workshop. We are living in our RV inside this workshop while home is being built. I think this is so cool...

Oh lovely picture Teen!

I took a picture today I've been wanting to take for a long time. Today was the day!!
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Nice photos, teen and anael!
I finished putting My Small World together today. Now I'm looking at the edges and wondering if I should put a little border on? Should I make a facing? How have you all bound your quilts? Not sure when I'll get around the quilting this. It's pretty intense, so I will most likely set it aside for a while and work on something easier. :-)

Thank you.

I haven't finished mine so I can't help you there. Maybe you can look on the internet or the facebook group and see how others have done it?

I'm working on two quilts right now but they are coming together fairly quickly so today I pulled out my Gypsy Wife project box and checked over my fabrics... I hope to start that next after I finish the two quilts. Thought I'd share my fabrics for GW with you....orange, teal, green, and white. Also, thought I'd share my home build as of today...the windows are huge because...really, look at that view...I stood in my sewing room yesterday...got tingles...lol...

Oh wow!!!! Both on your fabrics and on your new home. Look at the view!!! You can see for miles and miles and you have mountains on the horizon!! How exciting!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks, Anael...It is exciting...

Good morning, anyone give me some pointers on the Garden Paths block of SBGT? I have been struggling with this one. I’m hand piecing but may try machine. Any thoughts?

Hi Vickie!
Sorry, no help from me. I replaced Garden Paths with other blocks.

Oh wow, is right Anael...just a beautiful view and gorgeous fabrics for the GW, Teen

We have a cow breed called IJssel cattle, named after the river IJssel. Well, it's official name is Maas-Rijn-IJssel cattle but we always called it IJssel cattle. So...........last Sunday I went for a ride along the river IJssel. I saw some cows living up to their name LOL

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Anael...they look like our American Holsteins!:) As hot as it's been your way it seems they are trying to keep cool! Hope you are too, thanks for the lovely photo!

You're welcome OK! I think the official color of the IJssel cattle is red/white, not black/white. At least that's what we learned at school.

When we were in the Netherlands, our daughter's MIL had a herd of red and white cattle in her neighborhood. Very pretty grazing in the pasture.

We do have quite a lot of red and white cattle here too. It's quite common now. Where I grew up cows were black and white. I was really amazed seeing a red and white one.

Lovely moo moo picture! Lots of different colored cows in my town....pastures full of them. Today, on our last leg of our trip from Calif, we saw a large herd of cows and standing in the middle of them was a huge and proud bull. We cracked up because he looked at us as we drove by like he was saying.."They're all mine"