A TEST FOR IPATCH

I’m a follower of a wonderful blog named ipatch.  Beneath the ipatch title are the words “Made with bits of love.”  That drew me in as it’s how I feel about my fabric and quilting.  Blog owner Esther is an art teacher in the Netherlands.  She says she loves designing quilts and hoarding fabric.  That hoarding part sounded familiar and I started following her blog and admiring all the beautiful designs she creates.  One day I read that she needed pattern testers. 

She wrote:  “This pattern is more difficult than my other patterns. There are 16 points gathering in the centre! Please only respond if you are experienced (or geekishly fantastic) at foundation piecing. (It is possible that some of these points will not match up perfectly. Be prepared to add applique, a button or some embroidery to this centre to hide the little imperfections. )”  She also added: “The pattern took me about 3.5 hours to complete! Please be aware that is a big job!”

Unafraid, I quickly wrote and asked if I could help.  Esther kindly said she had enough testers but could use another one and sent me the pattern for Blooming Hot, a new foundation pieced pattern from her flower collection that should unfinish at 10 ½” square.

I was thrilled as I’ve never before been a pattern tester.  I printed out the PDF and eagerly read it over.  "I can do this," I kept repeating to myself.

First of all I need to tell you that it took me much longer than five hours to complete.  But I’m slow and worked carefully to make sure everything matched up as I wanted.  Esther’s directions are fantastic.  What I particularly liked is that she first gives you several drawings that you can color to make the design to your liking.  You can go here to see the various color ways that Ester used to make this pattern.  Being new at this, and struggling with a previous block that I had made with 16 seams meeting in the center, I thought it best to make all those 16 meeting seams be of one color so, just in case, the mistakes wouldn’t be so obvious.

Another thing that I did to keep things from being mixed up was color in the squares on the pattern pieces so I’d know which color went where.

I followed Esther’s directions for getting those points to meet and as you can see above, her wonderful directions worked like a charm.

This is the finished block.  Check out how all those points meet in the center.  They may not be perfect, and I think using one color of fabric in that area helped, but I like how it turned out.  Thank you Esther for letting me be a pattern tester and for writing such clear instructions.  While visiting Esther’s blog check out her Tutorials tab.  I think I had a link before to the Cloud Nine tutorial, one I’d like to make.  Also, click on the This Is Me tab.  It’s so nice to put a friendly face to the person who writes the blog.  Thanks again Esther.  You are a great designer and artist!

ON ANOTHER NOTE:  Retired to Quilt  has a tutorial for a modification of a rolling stone block.

Until next time,
♥
Stay Calm! Stay Kind! Stay Positive!
Caroll