Thursday was a marvelous day!! First off, there was mail. What was in the mail? The new Patchwork of the Crosses book. What an absolute treasure. There are many, many close-ups of the blocks from the original quilt and an absolutely fabulous centrefold photo of the entire quilt. The photographs are so amazingly crisp that one can really study the different fabrics Lucy Boston used in her quilt. It’s really quite astounding to see how she got the effects. The book gives all the directions one needs to make the blocks.

There have been a couple of questions about fussy cutting/printing with Inklingo to get special effects with the Patchwork of the Crosses shape.

The first thing that has to be done is to print, on plain paper, a sheet of the shapes. Once that’s done, cut out the interior of the shape along the stitching lines to get a window template. The second picture in this series shows the window template.

As I’ve been deciding on fabrics to use for these blocks, I’ve had that window template at my fingertips the whole time. As I pull out fabrics, I put the template on them to see what kind of effects I may be able to get.

With this stripe:

I possibly could get this effect, which could end up depicting a square in the centre of a block if I decide to use it.

This striped fabric rather intrigues me, although I may end up using the wrong side of the fabric rather than the front.

Putting the window template on it shows me that I can get sets of 4 of the stripe going horizontally easily. If I turn the fabric or use a different window template, I can get 4 of a vertical stripe.

This fabric will definitely be used. It’s a somewhat wider stripe that will give a great effect. I have only a small piece of it so will play with the window template to make sure I get the most out of it.

I can get four out of it easily horizontally but not vertically as the piece is just too small — but the four horizontally will work perfectly. I’ve already been thinking about the fabrics that will be used with this in a block.

This fabric has a perfect repeat for fussy cutting these shapes.

If you click on this shot, you’ll see that the window template shows me that I can get 2 of each of 2 different motifs in a horizontal row. So if I cut two pieces of the fabric making sure I’m getting the exact same repeat, I’ll have 4 different sets of 4 pieces — which will make for another interesting effect in one of the blocks.

The trick is to always put the window template on to the fabric face down, as the printing will be on the back of the fabric. Once I’ve sorted out where to position the window template to get the shapes printed on the parts of the fabric I’ve picked out, I then put the large square rotary ruler on top of the window template, which is in a plastic sheet protector. I line the top edge of the ruler up with the top of the template and the right side up with the right side of the template.

Then all that has to be done is to ease the window template out from under the ruler and then cut. It sounds so much more complicated than it is. Once one has done this once it becomes second nature!

The second best part of Thursday? The gardeners came with lots and lots and lots of flowers to plant. I guess we’re finally past the threat of any frost. I imagine by the time Friday is over the flowerbeds will look fabulous with lots of glorious blooms.

Lester was very busy Thursday watching out the window as the gardeners kept bringing out all the flowers and the window cleaners went flying by. What fabulous timing — wonderful clean windows just as the flowers get planted!