40 Country Quilting Projects: Iris Medallion Quilt

 I have a lot of older quilting books. I've picked them up at various thrift stores, clearance sales at quilt shops, library sales, etc. When I use an older book, I do expect there to be some outdated techniques, but I don't have a problem with that. I've been making quilts long enough now that I'm confident enough to choose a technique that suits me better. But what I don't expect are errors: miscalculations in yardage, incorrect cutting measurements, inadequate or missing instructions... And, in my opinion, any pattern should have pattern testers before it's published: at least one person, preferably 2 or 3 or more that is at the experience level of the target audience for the pattern and completes the whole project following the pattern exactly. That way any errors can be found and corrected prior to publication. It's not enough that the original pattern designer has made the quilt. That designer might have certain steps that are so automatic that he/she neglects to include them in the instructions. Or maybe there were distractions during the writing of the pattern and things got written incorrectly, or excluded altogether. So pattern testers are a necessity. But, from my experience, it appears that there have been a lot of patterns published with no prior testing whatsoever. Which is quite a pity. A really poorly written pattern could be enough to discourage a beginner from pursuing the hobby altogether. And that would be a shame. 
So, in all honesty, I cannot recommend this book, unless you're a relatively experienced quilter and are into brain challenges. 

There are just too many mistakes. I have done quite a number of projects from this book now, and I think that's more than sufficient to know that it is not a great quilting book. 
I originally posted about my quilting book challenge back in December of 2016: I was planning on completing every project in this book, with some possible modifications, like using fusible web for my applique, and never hand stitching unless absolutely necessary. I had no idea that many of the modifications would end up being correcting the patterns. And by the way, I'm not really sure how the author calculated the number of projects: if I made 3 Christmas ornaments, does that count as one project, or three? So, I'm not totally sure what number I'm at, so the 40 in the title is a best guestimate. 
But on to the challenges with this particular pattern:
First of all, I will say that I can't honestly speak to the yardage requirements. I switched colours, added fabric from other projects and sometimes did my own thing, but as far as I can tell, the fabric yardages listed are reasonably accurate. Not so for making Template G. It states 12½ x 12½ x 17¾-inch right triangle. Hmm, knowing what I do about HSTs (half square triangles), I think that following these measurements will end up with a square that's slightly too small. Making an HST unit that ends up 12½" square (12" finished size), I need to start with squares that are 12⅞", not 12½". So, I ended up making HST units according to my knowledge, and not cut individual triangles using a template that wasn't the correct size. 
My main concern with this pattern, however, is the cutting charts, particularly for the appliqué blocks. For the individual iris blocks, it says to cut 12 of Template L. This is the leaf template, and it neglects to state that you also need 12 of the reverse of Template L. Then for the centre medallion, it calls for 8 of Template O and 8 of Template P, also leaf templates. This time, the amount was correct, but half of those 8 each need to be reversed. Otherwise all of the leaves would be pointing in the same direction. 

When it came to actually doing the appliqué, I found that the instructions were not as clear as I would have liked. There are no specific measurements or guidelines for positioning the pieces. For example, in the centre medallion, you start by putting the 'O' leaves on. Obviously, from both the diagram and the quilt pictures, these leaves are partway up the stem, but there is no indication for how far up the stem. Furthermore, the diagram shows the 'O' leaves on the vertical and horizontal, and later instructs the quilter to put the 'P' leaves on the diagonal, but the quilt pictures show the opposite. I went with the placement in the pictures, and just guestimated for where to put the 'O' leaves. As far as the stems go, I felt that they were too short and made mine longer.

There were also no measurements for where to attach the corners on the centre medallion. 
As for the rest of the instructions, I was occasionally referring to them, but mostly doing what I knew needed to be done. I found it rather peculiar that the Quilting Basics chapter does discuss strip piecing, but never recommends using it for the 9-patches, which would have been ideal for that technique. And that's what I did. 

I did a little research into why this book would have still been using templates for so many of the pieces that were pretty basic measurements. Apparently, while rotary cutters, mats and rulers existed at this time (1990), many quilters and quilt publications were still using templates. And that would be why the cutting charts in this book indicate the number of pieces required, but not how many strips to cut first. If you're interested in a little history of quilting templates, you can find it here. 
Anyway, my personal design changes in this quilt:
Initially, I was going to do the irises all in purple, as per the pattern, but the sister for whom I was making this quilt really likes yellow, so I opted for bi-colour irises, incorporating the yellow. 
Of course, I used fusible web and machine stitching for the appliqué, rather than freezer paper and hand stitching. I would still be working on this quilt a decade from now if I was hand stitching all of those pieces down - 160 individual pieces. And I did not use bias strips for the stems - just regular fabric and fusible web, stitched down by machine. 
The original size of the quilt was to be 84 x 108 inches, but I wanted it 90", my preferred width for a queen-sized quilt. So, I added the checkerboard border on the sides. 
The "trunk" of the pine tree in the pine tree block was supposed to have been the same dark green as the solid green triangle and square in the block. But who has ever seen a dark green tree trunk? At least not on a pine tree. I used brown instead. And I opted for a more medium green as well. I felt that the dark green in the quilt pictures kind of "shouted" and was rather distracting from what should have been the focus of the quilt - the irises. 

I also chose not to use blue in the 9-patch, opting instead for an alternate purple print.
If I had to do it over again, I would probably choose to use fabrics with greater contrast for the yellow parts of the irises. And in the individual iris blocks, I likely would have also decided on greater contrast between the green leaves and the green part of the background. 
In spite of all of the challenges, it really is a beautiful quilt. And, as you can see, it looks significantly different from the one in the cover photo on the book. I told my middle sister, Nancy, that if Therese (the sister for whom this quilt was made) doesn't like it, she should give it back because I sure do. And Nancy said that she would be next in line. 
For the quilting, I had really wanted to use an iris pantograph, but I wasn't pleased with either Iris Clamshell or Siberian Iris from Urban Elementz. They were too sharp and stylized. The iris design included in the Flower Flakes collection from Meadow Lyon is very pretty, and more what I wanted, but it was just a single block, not an edge to edge design. And really, since I own so many pantographs that I have yet to use, I could hardly justify buying a new pantograph. And I certainly didn't wish to buy a whole bunch of them in order to justify the cost of shipping. So, rather reluctantly, I was planning on choosing a design from my rather extensive "library" of pantographs. But I hadn't totally given up on the idea of an iris pantograph, and I finally decided to check Anne Bright Designs. It's not a vendor I resort to often. She doesn't sell paper pantographs. Most of her designs are digital, although she does have a few self-print. I might have mentioned before that I am not a fan of self-print. I don't like having to print out multiple pieces of paper and trying to precisely line them up and tape them together. And then, if I want to keep it, how I am supposed to store this mass of paper and tape? What I choose to do instead is print out one repeat of the design in the size I want, and trace it onto a roll of paper cut to pantograph size (12'). The roll of paper is actually for a children's easel, and I bought it on Amazon. But that is quite a tedious job as well. 

Nevertheless, I found a design I liked: Iris for Donna. I enlarged it 200% to get it to the size I wanted. My hand weights came in handy to keep the paper in place whilte tracing. But it took me several days, and probably loss of brain cells due to inhaling the magic marker smell. But I was happy with it. 

In spite of enlarging it 200%, it is still a pretty delicate design, and I certainly had to take my time quilting this one. But I got it quilted within 2 or 3 days, and I got it in the mail to my sister. 

Because I'm a bit of a numbers nerd, sometimes I like to keep track of things. In the picture is bobbin number 8, that I only used part of, so over 7 bobbins to quilt this quilt. The 1100 metre spool of Aurilux thread was full when I started (cone of blue on the right for comparison). And that was just for bobbin thread. I used Glide on the top. 
 
Interestingly, I kept the invoice for when I purchased most of the fabric used in this quilt because I made notes on it for which fabric to use for what part of the quilt. The invoice is dated 2017, so it was long overdue to be completed. And that's it - my final quilt for my sisters. Now, I really should make one for my own bed!