Marcelle Medallion

I've been waiting for a perfect sunny day to photograph some quilts to share with you. Seems like every day it's way too windy, or it's dark when my helper gets home from work! I took advantage of him being home this weekend to get some shots of my finished Marcelle Medallion quilt!

 I absolutely love this quilt! It was a major challenge for me and I enjoyed every minute making it. My buddy, Diann, did some special custom quilting on it which makes it absolutely PERFECT! You can see it better in this zoomed in shot....

I plan to hang it in our family room where I can enjoy it every day (just one more step in my effort to bring aqua into every room in the house, haha!)

Quilt Stats:
Marcelle Medallion from Alexia Marcelle Abegg's book Liberty Love
Size 60" square
fabric, assorted Bella Solids by Moda

whew! my Marcelle Medallion quilt top is done

This baby has been a real labour of love!

Three months ago, my friends Lisa and Sarah taught me how to foundation paper piece. I thought "if I can get the center medallion for the Marcelle Medallion quilt done right surely I can tackle the rest!" Well guess what friends? IT HAPPENED! I learned so many new skills with this quilt top, improved my precision piecing immensely and even spent a little quality time with my seam ripper along the way but it's done!

details:
Pattern, Marcelle Medallion by Alexia Marcelle Abegg (from her Liberty Love book)
fabric, 9 different solids, sorry I did not get the names of each
finished size, 60 inches square

Off it goes to the quilter. I have to say, I'm quite happy with this one!

and May is a wrap!

Is it just me, or is this year just flying by? I know I think that every year, but seriously? June 1 already? Wow. Yesterday I finished up my May calendar journal and got my June journal ready to go....

 I feel pretty good about my accomplishments this month. 2 finished quilts (Pow Wow Quilt and Michael Miller Challenge quilt), lots of progress on my Marcelle Medallion, a new top for me, several crochet medallions and yards and yards of paper garland for the upcoming graduation!

 I had some other small finishes that I can't share with you just yet. I'm not thinking June will be as productive in the sewing room. This coming Friday is Ally's High School graduation, complete with house guests, and a fun party. After that we have college orientation and lots to do to get her ready to head off at the end of summer! It's an exciting time.

Here is how our May wrapped up....

a beautiful, very clear rainbow in the sky last night! God is good.

progress

I've been working hard on my Marcelle Medallion quilt the last few days. Border #4 required 64 flying geese units. During the assembly, one row of geese took off flying in the wrong direction. After some unsewing and speaking sternly to them, I got them to submit and go the right way.

 Then today I added border #5, made up of random bricks in all of the colors. I really love where this is going!

Only three more borders to go! I may have this quilt top finished way faster than I had expected. I am going to need to find a great place to display it when it's done. I can already tell it's going to be a favorite child!

triangles

It's been about three weeks since I updated you on my Marcelle Medallion quilt. Shortly after I posted that I added one simple border (cropped really poorly here, but you get the idea!)

 And then it sat. You see, just like the center medallion, the next border was something new to me. 60 degree triangles. And, just like the medallion, the book provided a template to cut out all of the triangles, but I knew there was an easier way to do it. I toyed with the idea of paper piecing my border and then I remembered that I have a 60 degree ruler (still in the wrapper, never been used!)

Rather than dive right into the borders, I decided to try out the ruler first. I had a swap project that needed to be made (which I will share with you in due time).

 And darned if those triangles didn't go together easy as pie! I didn't chop off a single point!

(another sneak peak just before quilting and binding)

And so I dove right in! By the end of the day, borders 2 & 3 were added. Oh, and you might have noticed I added a corally pink to  the mix of solids....

Next up.... flying geese!