Mountmellick Medallion

I have had so many issues with a couple of Australian patterns that I was beginning to become gun-shy in starting another project.  Di Ford is a well-respected Designer and I had hoped to have no issues with Mountmellick.  This time in making a complex quilt I am keeping the past lessons I have learned from past ‘mistakes’ from the Designer, and that I need to go slow, read and re-check the pattern each step of the way.  So far so good and even though it is slow, I do believe that this will be a very successful project.

This morning I am ready to put the first border on the center medallion.  I always make the background fabric 2 inches larger than the pattern requires, mainly to ensure that I will be able to square the block, or medallion without issues!  If the medallion is not perfectly squared the remainder of the quilt will be a total disaster!

Before I did anything, I placed a padding of muslin on the ironing board and placed the appliquéd medallion face down, sprayed it with Sizing and PRESSED not iron!  I did this step to make sure the fabric would not flare (had this problem before!)

I started with a 20 1/2″ square did the math to ensure that when reducing the medallion to 18 1/2″ it would be perfect!  I started by bringing my medallion down to a 19″ square.  I have a 20 1/2″ Creative Grid ruler that really helps in accomplishing this step.  Before I cut, I marked the background as to where I would cut and checking all sides to ensure equality on each side!  Then I measured an additional 1/4″ on each side of the medallion inside the 19″ marking.  BUT I did this by marking the medallion 1/8″ all around, checking to make sure it would be square, cutting it to 18 3/4″ and THEN measuring another 1/8″ to bring it to 18 1/2″ square.  During this process I kept measuring from corner to corner to make sure all things were remaining square!

After all of this I took the 18 1/2″ square and did a stay stitch on my newly cleaned Designer I to ensure that when sewing the first border there will not be an issue with flaring.  (been there done that one before without a stay stitch).  Here is a picture of the finished perfectly squared 18 1/2″ Center Medallion!

So now to adding the first border.  I want to thank Lu Ann Krug for sending me the border fabric for this quilt.  It was a piece that she had left over from when she made the quilt.  I met up with Lu Ann through her Blog in 2014 just as I was beginning to start on this quilt when my step son was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.  Here it is 3 years later and I am FINALLY back to a “sameness of routine” as my friend Gretchen stated in her morning post!  This last year I discovered Gretchen and what a surprise to find out that Lu Ann and Gretchen are friends and live in what I call “Quilter’s Heaven” because of their love of quilting!  How I would love to live closer and attend the Retreats with them!  Both ladies are great and dedicated quilters.

Well, off to put the first border on….. more to follow!