Can you see how the 3" wide border was too much and took the focus off the center? Now it will connect better to the thin blue inner border and form a relationship - hahaha! No, I mean that seriously. There is a real connection now! Can you see the improvement>?

BTW, the red strips are there just to cover up and the binding I use will be the beige muslin. It'll form a nice connection. Do you think?

When I look at my cropped pic wo the muslin the center pops out more. Right now the red is distracting me a bit. What if you narrow your pieced border, add a muslin border the width of the last muslin border and then bind in the royal blue floral? hey I gotta go and get some bookwork done tonight yet. Will be anxious to see how your finish! G

You did good on this tute! I love the way you inserted the words into the picture. I never thought of that. Tho I have inserted words onto a picture before. Just never thought of it in this instance. Great job!

Thanks, G, for your feedback! That's a good idea, I like it, but that's all of that blue floral I have except for 3" squares left and a 9" piece, but I have lots of blues that could come very close to it. I've decided to update the look of the mini by going with a narrow CP border and binding it in muslin or a similar drk. blue to match the inner border. I can see now in the pics here how the 3" border is just too wide for this mini. It will give it a smart look by cutting it down to half its size and possibly adding a thin muslin border as the last one. Hope you get your bookwork done and thanks for your help. Will see ya here tomorrow. n2! :D

Hi Rhonda! So nice to chat with ya! Love your GC in the avatars I've seen lately that you've been using! They're so cute! Thank you so much on the compliment! I love MS Paints and I had deleted the program last year and never did get it back installed again until recently, but it's so fun to use and sure makes posting a tute a cinch! ;-) Your grandbaby was so darling as your avatar! I loved it!

thanks N2 they are all adorable and I am NOT predjudiced! LOL
I love seeing your work. You do things I'd never thought of. I enjoy watching the others work on here who love minis too.

I have Irfanview and have used it for things on my website but never thought to use it that way. thanks for the idea.

Well, they sure are cute! Wish I had GC as I love kids so much. Thank you so much, Rhonda! That's so nice of you to say you love seeing my work. You know I do things I've never thought of too! I just flow with the creative juices. I love seeing others' works too that love minis as much as you and me! You know I missed MS Paints so much and it really saved me a ton of time by writing on the pics as all I had to do was just download the pics with no typing -- fast, fast! Actually, I have http://www.paintnet.com too and it's much better but usually use MS because I'm familiar with it. Try both of those programs as you will love it and especially doing tutes. You can have your pics all prepared with the wording on each one and posting the tute will be a breeze! One tute took me 3 hours one time just to post it!! There were 80+ pics! So I have learned the shortcuts! And believe me they help! I've been so busy I didn't have time to check your tute out you posted the same day I posted this one. I only got to the first page to see how pretty the mirror image block was and quickly had to leave the thread for one interruption or another and never made it back. Tonight I'm trying to get the translator, either google or ms, to work for me to translate the Chinese on the other tute I posted and nothing works right. MS just changed the Mandarin into empty square blocks. lol. I don't need it translated but it would be nice to see things work right. haha. Your welcome for the idea. Sure hope you use it. You know everyone likes to get through a tute quickly as time is essential, and it's a plus factor in that respect. I believe they appreciate it when we try to keep it brief and easy! Well, talk to you later! Have a great night and keep those pretty blocks coming! n2 :-D

Finishing this mini:

WOW is this going to the top of my list.... it' good to see that other people like to "do their own thing",,, but even better to have them SHARE.... you've given something i love to do.. (grab and sew then cut up again any size pieces)... and given it "structure".... thank you so much.......i have a home sewing space that is like "the home for little wandering fabric pieces"... people know i can't bare to part or throw out... (just thru a bag in there not 1/2hr. ago from a buddy...LOL)... anywhooooooo
Thank you again... it's a super project and better explained that most any "books" people buy...hugs Barbara

N2 I love your outcome. It kind of looks like a cathedral window only squarish. It really came out pretty! I love the blue being repeated. It does really make the whole quilt.

I love it when quilters can take advice and come out a winner! Gladie was spot on on how to bring out it's best look!

You did an excellent job on the tute and the borders and of course a beautiful little quilt!

Wow! Hugs to you {{{{Barbara}}}! What a nice compliment! It's great to sew, cut up and then re-sew it all again! haha. I'm like you.....I can't bear to even throw out 1/4" of fabric! One time I was lacking 3/16" of a fabric in a mini I was working on! See how important those real tiny pieces are, y'all???? haha. Don't y'all dare throw ANY scraps away! Well, I just had to streamline that RRK block for everyone! I had to eliminate that 2nd template and I sure couldn't stand having no room left to adequately join those corner points! So it was time for an improved design on that block! I posted this last portion of pics so I could help others to see how we need to balance what we do with the rest of the quilt. I hope they'll see I gave the mini an updated look by chopping away at the border. I just introduced 'balance' to the mini by doing that. Then again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I hope that I've taught well and hopefully someone will learn something from what I do or it's all pointless. I'm so glad for the opportunity to share also. There are so many talented people here that we wish they would share more with us! Thanks again! I'm looking forward to seeing those pieces of art of yours that have brought order out of chaos! haha. All those little scraps look like chaos sometimes but we know how to control it and hopefully turn it into something eyepleasing. That's why we're all here! Be sure and post pics of your lovelies and PM me so I don't miss it! hugs! n2! :thumbup:

Thanks, Rhonda! I think my finishing touch tomorrow will do it. You know the beautiful white center cross gives me an idea to do another mini like it only with a landscape behind the cross! I can just see a beautiful sunset there in gorgeous colors with greenery and springtime bursting out in the bottom blocks enough to grab the dreams of the person viewing it! Sounds good, huh? Now on to more work.......lol.

:thumbup:

p.s. you know I didn't even think about Oksewglad's suggestion. I just knew what I had to do and focused on what I wanted to achieve and went for it! ;)

Well, I just couldn't wait to finish! Here's my surprise final step!

It was the muslin prairie points! Now all that's left is to hand stitch the backing to the mini using an invisible applique stitch. Will be doing that tonight and HQ finally gets done tomorrow!

Bev, here's the fabric I was talking about. n2.

The PPts put the final touch n2! G

It turned out beautiful. I love the PP's around the edge. It finishes it off just right.

Wow! Thanks so much for showing another way to use all the crumb blocks I've been making. Is the template available online or is one that we can make from plastic?

Thank you, Eileen! I love PP's too! And putting them on brought out the white of the cross and gave the mini balance! I'm happy with the results!

:D

Your welcome!! I made my own template. You can download it by rt. clicking on the picture on page 1 of this tute or you can simply make your own template by drawing a 3" square, and at the 2.5" mark, draw a line to the corner for each side and voila! Transfer the pattern to cardboard, plastic, acrylic or wood. I simply changed the shape of the RRK block and eliminated having a 2nd template by creating a chunky style block that gives us lots of room around those corner points! :-D Cutting the fabric down in the tute ensures those corners will meet nicely. Hopefully, I'll get time to design more of my own templates and offer the quilters at really great prices! Thnx again! :D :D :thumbup:

Forgot to show this for all you tulip lovers out there!

what a great adaptation (turning into butterfly mini!!). Another fantastic tute. Thank you, n2

Wow! What a nice compliment!! Thank you and your very welcome, retrogirl02!! I'm looking forward to seeing some of the quilters' creations of this block!

:-D ;-) ;) :!: :thumbup: