Trophy Buck Quilt Along—Week 7

If you've stayed on track so far, you'll be almost three-quarters of the way done. Gold stars all around even if you've slipped a bit behind!

The focus this week is Panel 3 templates 75 through 83. Once those are done, you can move on to the assembly of Panel 3 to wrap up the week. It should go fairly fast, because there is little fussy matching of templates.  What can be better than that?!

We have another guest Longarm League poster this week sharing a bit about herself and some favorite tips. Meet Danelle!

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Longarm League Guest Post

by Danelle Howard, Cottage Path Quilting

A Bit about Me

Hi there, my name is Danelle. I’m the longarm quilter behind Cottage Path Quilting in southwest Missouri. Around here the deer are plentiful! I just knew I had to participate in this quilt-along as soon as I saw it announced. Being a member of the Longarm League gave me the chance to not only sew along but offer some great discounts on finishing Trophy Buck quilts for others! And, I’m going to have fun telling certain friends about the huge buck I got this year.  ;)

Once completed, this quilt is going to migrate South to Texas as a Christmas gift for my brother. Actually, he is the first person I ever made a full quilt for. Twenty-six years ago I made my first bed size quilt for his wedding. It was a king size double wedding ring (shown below). At that time, I hand pieced and quilted everything. It’s the way my grandma and all the ladies at our church quilting circle quilted, so that’s what I learned. It still blows me away that I now quilt with this amazing, huge APQS Lucey longarm machine...and that other quilters trust me with their amazing works of art. I love being part of a hobby that allows us to connect past, present and future technology and tradition!

My Best Advice

I am very new to Foundation Paper Piecing. This is definitely the largest project I have done yet! My best tip for other beginners is to buy a little extra fabric and then BE FEARLESS! I let these patterns intimidate me for far too long. There are great tips included each week of this QAL. I’ve personally tested the post about fixing mistakes and it works, lol. And fearlessly ask questions. Reading comments from others in this QAL, I’ve learned to use fabric clips instead of pins. A seam roller is near the top of my Christmas gift list. And ALWAYS triple check that I’ve picked up the correct fabric for the piece I’m sewing.

Longarm Tips

• One of the best parts of FPP is how exact/precise it is! However, quilt tops can still get a bit wonky around the edges. Especially if you add a border as I plan to do. With these very bold, graphic designs, some of our normal quilting tricks for handling unevenness just won’t work as well. Measure the entire quilt in three places for both width and height but ALSO across diagonal corners to see how close it is to ‘square.’ If something is off don’t panic or start trimming, just let your quilter know you are aware of it and we can discuss how to handle any issues.
• Depending on your personality, that final step of tearing out the papers can seem like drudgery or a personal triumph! Don’t be tempted to rush this step though. Adding a paper layer that hasn’t been removed to multiple seam allowances can make for messy stitches in those joined areas.
  

See that little scrap of paper? I almost didn’t either!

I’m just halfway through the piecing of this quilt (photo below) but, as a longarm quilter, my mind is racing with ideas and designs for the final step. Feel free to reach out with any questions you may have about finishing your Trophy Buck. But for now, I hope you are enjoying seeing your buck come to life one funny looking scrap of fabric at a time!

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Weekly Challenge

Catch up if you've fallen behind and share a progress shot using the hashtag #trophybuckquiltalong.