Star Valley: MBS Choose Your Adventure QAL

I am so excited to finally set off on my first adventure at Oda May's Summer Camp. (What's Oda May's summer camp? It's a mystery QAL hosted by Moda Bake Shop. Click here and here for all the details.) I chose to take Path B with camp counselor Kristina Brinkerhoff and hike to Star Valley (Click here for the instructions). Although I love Path A going to Dresden Peak (instructions), let's get real, with my aversion to hand sewing - and heights (Dresden Peak, get it?) - I knew I'd never get that applique finished! LOL!

Here is my selection of Play All Day fabrics by American Jane for the center medallion.

And here is my cutting chart I drew up in EQ7. Its so much easier to visualize when you can draw it up using your own fabrics!

I cut my fabrics and - whoops - made a mistake. So, here's my first tip for this QAL: Read the cutting directions carefully, then measure twice - even thrice - before cutting. I wasted a little fabric by cutting an extra set of 1 1/2" x 4 1/2" strips of the orange, which wouldn't be a big deal except I really don't have any extra fabric for mistakes. 

A couple of additional tips for this block:

1. When sewing the half square triangles, be careful not to stretch the fabric as you are sewing on the bias. You can remedy this some by drawing a line diagonally from corner to corner on the background square, layering it on top of the print square, then sewing 1/4" on either side of the line, and lastly cutting on the line to create 2 half square triangles.
2. Chainstitching will make the sewing go faster.

And here's my finished Star Valley block. I ended up switching the yellow and orange square prints from my original draft because my yellow layer cake square was cut crooked and I needed more fabric to square it up. I'm hoping the orange and yellow quarter log cabin blocks will blend in better once the rest of the rounds are added. 

It was a beautiful hike to Star Valley. Thanks Kristina! Next week, I'll be one of the camp counselors leading you on an adventure. Hope you'll join me!

~Sharla

Update: Here is the link for the first border to add around the center medallion.

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