~ Home Again Progress and Tips ~

Hi Quilty Friends!  Today I'm taking a little break from quilting the Hunkering Down quilt to play a little game of catch up on the Home Again quilt by Erin Russek.

I'm 3 blocks behind but due to my lack of attention to detail I will need to redo/fix two of the blocks on the wall.  Color placement is an important part of any quilt.   It helps to visually balance or distract depending on the effect you're after.  Block design can also be a balancing effect.  Notice the symmetry in the blocks of this quilt.  Block placement is key in this pretty girl.  Since I'm not following Erin's color pallet it was easy for me mess things up.  Oh well, such is the life of a crafter.  We make mistakes from time to time.  I could leave it as is but with this much work going into a quilt I want it to be as perfect as possible.  The problem is I put the wrong colors in the blocks below.  Visually right now it looks right but the blocks are in the wrong spots just so I can see the color in the right place.  However there is a slight design difference that also adds balance.  Today I'll remove and replace the offending applique pieces.

To aid in the construction of my last few blocks I've taken a few extra precautionary steps.  First was to print a few images from Erin's blog. The image below shows all the blocks in the correct places. 

I've pinned it to my design wall for easy reference.

 Next was to print Erin's last three block images.  I didn't do this with the previous blocks.  Since my attention to detail seems to be a little off right now I thought it might be worth a little printer ink to have the images right there beside me on the last four..  

Next I've labeled the pattern with the proper colors from my pallet.  I also added a diagonal to the applique template sheet for lining up my fabric.  This was done out of pure habit.  Erin's pattern is centered perfectly on the paper.  The fabric background square is 8.5" and they have all fit perfectly without needing the centering marks.  Just line up the fabric with the edge of the paper and start adding applique.  I haven't needed to use my light box for these either.

 Another precaution I'm taking (just encase my brain decides to take trip into la-la-land) is labeling my circles on the fusible with the correct color.  The center for the large flower is a little bigger than the other 4 flower centers.  It would be easy to attach it to the wrong color.  Hopefully taking these extra steps will make these last few blocks go together properly.

I know some of you may already use these methods as a standard when making applique.  In my earlier blocks my thought was to just get them done quickly and move onto something else.  Lesson learned!  It's quicker to do it right the first time.

All of these small blocks are FREE on Erin's blog.  Click here to go to her most recent post.  Do a search in the sidebar of her blog for Home Again or just keep scrolling and clicking older post to find all the blocks.

The large center block can be purchased here.

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