Maria's Majesty

PS. Amazing what you can do with a little more sunlight and a hotter iron. This time, I made sure the iron was hot and threw some weight into it. Voila! The wrinkles are gone! As a bonus, the sun came out and I have a better photo, too!

For the second day in a row, I've completed another Dear Jane block, I5 - Maria's Majesty!

The Plan
There are countless approaches to this block. Click here to see what I mean. I decided to hand piece the yellow "clover" to four pieces of the ivory fabric and iron those seam allowances toward the clover so that the seam allowance would not show through the ivory fabric and so that the clover would look like it was on top of the "background."
The Applique
Next, I appliqued the four melons. Luckily, I did my research (see red hotlink above) so I was forewarned that the two curves that comprise each melon are not identical. This was my first applique in a long time so I had to think hard to remember how to do it! The method I use involves freezer paper and glue, and then after hand sewing the melons to the block, cutting away the fabric behind the appliques and wetting the entire block so that that the paper and glue can be removed.

The Fabric
This yellow fabric provides good contrast to the ivory without being garish. Best of all, the spirals echo all the round shapes in this block.

My Progress
The completion of this block means that I now have four concentric diamonds that encircle the central block! Looking at my mock-up, I'm starting to feel OK about the single trip-round-the-world arrangement -- versus the double TRTW. This makes the quilt feel more random and that might mean I won't have to remake so many blocks. We'll see. This is my obsession and I'm sure I'll be thinking about this more in the future.

This is the old photo before I re-ironed the block. Note to self: heat up the iron and throw your weight into it! PS. Use a pressing board.