Halo Star Medallion--Month 5

This month we continue making Curved Flying Geese blocks, another 18 of them:

Once you have all 36 curved flying geese blocks made, you are ready to piece them into left and right and top and bottom borders. I pressed the seams of the blocks open, that seemed to work best for me. Refer to the diagrams on page 4 to be sure you are joining the blocks in the proper order.

Then, using the chart in the Month 5 instructions, you will calculate the size your "floater" borders need to be to make the center of the quilt fit those borders. Measure carefully, don't fudge, just figure out what size "floaters" are needed to make it all fit together. There are no extra points for having the same numbers Sue had--I don't, I'm off about 1/2" now. Just don't tell anyone. As long as your quilt is nice and square, all will be well.

The tips for making the Curved Flying Geese blocks are the same as last month, find that post here.

You don't want to rush this but I think you will find how much easier these are to make than you thought they would be.  One of the newer quilters in the Sunday Halo Sew and Sews, Donna D, was so tickled with how well her blocks are coming along, she sent me a photo:

None of the 14 members of this little group consider themselves "expert" quilters, and a few are really pretty new but all are doing great things with this project and are pleased with all they are learning. As I say often, this is one of those quilts that deserves your best work so take it slow, and put your best into this one.

As I made the first 3 borders, I just selected the "geese" fabrics at random and didn't worry too  much about which fabrics appear on either end of the curve of 8 geese. As I sewed one block to the next I just watched that the fabrics were different where they joined each other.

When I got to the final border, however, I wanted to be sure I didn't have the same fabric in position 1 and 8, where the blocks come together. So I selected the geese for the final 10 blocks carefully before I sewed those blocks together. To be sure I kept them in order, I created 10 numbered Flower Head pins, using a Sharpie to draw the number 1-10 on each pin head:

Of course, you can buy numbered pins, and those that have up/down/left/right arrows, etc. But, if you have Flower Head pins, and a Sharpie, you can create your own. So that is my tip for the month!

We had a short Sunday Halo Sew and Sews gathering recently. Here are the 3 quilts we got to see:

JoAnne has her curved flying geese borders underway

Brenda has 36 geese done, ready to sew those borders now

Janet is using her stash of blue and white fabrics--she plans to submit it for the Sapphire Celebration 2019

Next month we will be making Half-Square Triangle borders, 1.5" finished. I already know mine will be totally scrappy. And I will make the first one with regular piecing, and the second one with paper piecing--the pattern includes all the papers you need for paper piecing. That way, I'll be able to decide which method I prefer and have the most success with--I'll use that method for the remaining two borders.

Let's Quilt!

Barbara