Whew!

What a marathon marking this quilt was - it feels almost like I could have quilted it in the time it took me to mark it - but it's finally all done.

It always takes me a while to figure out how to mark a quilt but I finally decided on crosshatching behind the dresden plateswith a finer crosshatch in the centres.

After a slow start I remembered a tip I'd seen recently and went back to my painter's tape. I positioned the tape on my ruler at the line that I was using so that it would be easier to distinguish - after a while they all look the same! It also helps avoid landing on the wrong one and ended up with incorrect widths. And it moves along much faster because you aren't always searching for the magic line.


Because it is such a large top I didn't want the gals who are quilting it to spend an eternity on it, so I was looking for ways to mark it that would be relatively fast and easy to quilt. Rather than following the seams between the blades I've made 3 concentric circles in each plate to reflect the rings in the flowers in the border, and I'll have them stitch right up close to the scalloped edge of each plate.

That meant raiding the cupboards for 'templates'. I wanted something that I could see through without having to draw them out on acetate so out came a vase, a crystal serving dish and a bread and butter plate. I couldn't see through the  plate but it was the right size so I drew the two others first and then eyeballed that one in the middle. For a while there it looked a lot like a garage sale...

The border is very simple perpendicular lines 1.25" apart that run through the vine; I'll have them stitch right news to the vine and each of the leaves & flowers. I toyed with having them insert a vein down each leaf but I'm going to see what it looks like without it. If I really think it needs it then I can do those later myself on the hoop.

Now I need to make the backing....M