Started: December 2022

I first posted about this quilt here–

My January goal was to cut fabric for the first block and get started. Normally the next step is to cut all the fabric as indicated by the instructions for each part. But the mountain mist patterns were written a long time ago. I believe early to mid 20th century. And as with most old patterns (whether quilting, sewing or knitting) it tends to assume you know things which nowadays people just don’t know. So rather than cut all the pieces only to find out I did something wrong, I cut enough to do one block.

Here’s what I found- for part 5 and 6, there are two places on each block that use these and they are both not the same! So part 5 has two not identical pieces. Same for part 6! It makes no sense. Usually when you have a part for applique they match. Anyway the tips match but one is longer than the other. So had I made a template of the longest part I would have been fine. But I didn’t. I made the templates from the shortest part for both 5 and 6! I made do for now so I could finish cutting for one block. But I’ll need to make new templates for these to make sure I don’t cut the longer part too short in future blocks.

The pattern also didn’t indicate which part to applique down first. Nowadays the numbers on the parts tell you which to do first. meaning applique #1, then #2, etc etc. But this one isn’t that way. So I picked this part to do first. I actually didn’t have the right color thread to applique. I have 100w silk that is so nice to applique with and I know I have purple somewhere. Or I think I do. If I do, it’s tucked away in a project. And the 100w silk that I used can be seen on that dark purple if you look closely. The next best thing is 80w aurifil or even 50w aurifil. the thread is so thin, it just sinks into the fabric. But despite me having a lot of purples and it being my favorite color, I didn’t have one that matched that dark purple!

I did find a pretty lighter purple in 50w Aurifil for the lighter purple. I’m going to Road to CA this coming week so I’ll be sure to take a sample of that dark purple to find a matching thread. Normally I wouldn’t care so much and just use what I have. But since I’m going to Road soon it doesn’t hurt to add it to my shopping list.

And I finished appliquéing those two pieces and was about to start a third when I stopped myself. My energy was waning and if I started this third piece I would probably end up ripping it out. So I settled on looking for thread for that green. I found one in my Superior thread collection. At 40w it’s not ideal thread to applique with for me but the color is dead on and I would love to use this thread for something. I had bought this years ago at a massdrop thing when I was into that. I rarely use these threads since I’m an Aurifil girl now and would love to use it up. So I will try. If I find that it’s too thick for applique I will switch it out.

Hugs

Melanie