What a beautiful piece!
But, believe me, it was a challenge! Those blocks are 5 inches square
exactly. There are 49 of them, alternating applique blocks with
pieced blocks. And, most of the pieced versions are made up of lots
of
one-inch half square triangles! This must have taken a long time to
accomplish.
Obviously, the tiny spaces
in the backgrounds of the applique blocks had to be filled with a
small, simple version of McTavishing. But, what about all those
one-inch half square triangles?
I finally decided, after
lots of sketching on top of printed photos of the blocks, to quilt
down the background fabrics to let the colored fabrics pop up, just
like they do in the applique blocks. I only quilted on the colored
fabrics when the pieces were large and required it.
I used a combination of
ribbon candy, Kim's loopy thang (no misspelling, that's what she
calls it!), and occasionally a four- or 8- petal flower. I kept
continuity by using ribbon candy in the border, matching the thread
color.
Forget
all the reasons why it won't work
and
believe the one reason why it will!
