To tell the truth, It's taken more than 18 hours and I still haven't added the bias tape. I still haven't picked a bias tape. Still 18 hours would get most of it done. I did stumble down a few blind alleys first. I must say I'd rather be stumbling through the next one than trying to make sense in print, but I've been lucky and I'm tickled to have something to share. So while trying to be brief here goes.
This is where the most hours were concentrated. Even though my herringbone (catch stitch) wasn't that neat or smooth, quilting falls right on top of most of it (all if I was neater). I feel like this would be a lot easier about four times as big.
After the wiggly pieces were stitched, the whole group was peeled from the form, stacked with the Insulbrite, cotton batt, and a worn-OD-looking working side, the stack was edge sewed to keep it flat. I used the template to position the circle template and mark the quilt pattern a circle at a time (so's not to smudge them or get lost in all the lines). Each circle generated two free ends to be dragged under and disappeared before they got grabbed by another circle.
The scrap from the circle marking template fitted against the needle, trapped by the pressure foot, kept me pretty much on my chalk circles which didn't show up allot of places.
Once the pattern of circles was established, the fill in moved more quickly as every circle was supposed to be the same. So as soon as I could find two places it had to be I could use any circle from the plan as a guide to fill each circle with the piscus flower (six fishes surrounded by six fishes). Even this small I really like this pattern. With Fishes at least 2 1/2 times larger (about finger size) I think it would be more flexible and easier to sew. I didn't make much headway toward error canceling in the pattern, but I think it will lend it'self to a better product from even a slightly better seamster.
These patterns feel very traditional to me. Even though I haven't seen quilts like this, I've got a feeling they're out there somewhere. Mine may be a little ham-handed, and not really do the pattern justice, but I'm looking forward to making a bigger sample. The Cairo baby blanket has already got me wondering just how far I'll be able to go on my machine, as the amount of material bunched to the right of my pressure foot was getting fairly crowded with just a 28x36 inch baby blanket. I'm still extremely thankful for my trusty steed, and if all I can sew on him are samples (pot holder sized) and baby blankets I'm still thrilled.
Somewhat customized steed with skateboard stickers.
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