Quilt centre finished

Ok, it's a poor picture I know,but the centre is finished.

Before I go any further though there are a couple of issues that I thought you ought to know about.  Firstly the very first block has to be trimmed to 10 1/4" x 10". It doesn't tell you that on the initial pattern or in the magazine but it does tell you on the final instructions pattern. Now, I copied the pattern for this block directly onto the fabric from the magazine pullout, and I found that in a couple of places my stitching overlapped where I needed to cut. So in order to not cut into my stitches and risk the whole lot coming undone I trimmed the straight edge where it needed to be with a rotary cutter and ruler up to the overlapping bits, but then trimmed around my stitches with a pair of scissors. It would have been helpful if I'd thought to take a photo of that but unfortunately I didn't. This meant that in one or 2 places the straight edge was now more notched than straight but when I started assembling the blocks these notches disappeared into the seam.

Secondly the patten instructions seem to have missed a step on unit three of the assembly. You also need to add a strip of the sashing fabric along the top of the Glory of the Lord block after stitching the strip to the right hand side of it. This enables it to fit properly to the bottom of unit two when you come to fit the quilt centre together. (OR you could add a strip to the bottom of unit two, same end result).

Can I just say though that I think the whole pattern is brilliant, and I love the idea that it has been a stitch-along, with thousands of people all working together on the same project all around the world. I also love Homespun Magazine and think thy have been incredibly generous sharing this with us for free online. I just wanted to make that clear in case anyone thought I was being unduly critical of the whole thing. That isn't the case at all, I simply wanted to point out these small errors in case anyone else was confused :)

Yay!! but...

Ok, the instructions are now 'live' but I'm not sure that they are written in the most  understandable way,  for me at least.  I found them quite intimidating, and that's as someone who has already put together similar un-symmetrical quilts/wallhangings, so for a novice it could be a complete turn-off. So, just for Kelley, and anyone else who might find it helpful, this is how I approached it.

First of all, as it says in the instructions, cut 2" strips across the width of the sashing fabric. Then ignore the next part which tells you to cut it all into different rectangles and follow me...
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Using the diagrams given in the pattern start to piece together the blocks as directed but WITHOUT cutting the sashing into pieces first. So, first I stitched the sashing in place to the Megaphone angel block, and then to the angel orchestra block, laying the sashing on top of the blocks, right sides together, so I could see where I was sewing, and so that the wadding didn't get stuck in the needle.

Once I had stitched as many blocks as would fit to the sashing strip I carefully cut them apart, first opening out and pressing the sashing strip. (Not sure how visible that is here as the sashing appears much more similar in colour here than in real life). Once that's done, go on to the next block, making sure to follow the diagrams given in Homespun's instructions as to where each piece of sashing needs to go. Just make sure you do use each little piece of sashing that you can while still keeping each section in one piece. By that I mean you don't need to join lengths but make sure you use smaller pieces on smaller blocks, rather than using a new piece each time.

The rest of the instructions are fine (as far as I've got yet) I just found the multitude of little rectangles to cut out quite daunting to be faced with, and to keep track of, so for me this seems like a much more simple way of approaching it.

(Im)patiently waiting..

My little pile of stitcheries is all ready and waiting for tomorrow. That's when the final piece of the Stitch-a-long pattern will be published on the Australian Homespun website so I can finish my wallhanging in time for christmas. Well, thats the plan anyway!