Baby Steps on Big Quilt

After a fun, busy weekend celebrating our grandson's baptism, I got a little bit done on the Big Quilt. I'm finding that most of my time on this quilt is spent in prep work--drawing the pattern and transferring it to freezer paper. It's well worth the time, though, because then the sewing is fast and accurate. I was going to draw all of the remaining sections, but after I got the first half of one done, I couldn't resist doing some sewing. (That way I'd have something to show for my effort, too.) 

I remember that in a previous post I said I had figured out how to press my seams open while using a freezer paper foundation technique that I found on Twiddletails. I snapped pictures while I was working yesterday to show what I mean. I don't know that this extra little step would be practical for small scale pieces, but with these biggies, it works really well. 

In this method, I folded the freezer paper back and sewed the seam right up against the edge to join two pieces of fabric:

Then I trimmed the seam allowance to 1/4 inch.

Next, I peeled back the freezer paper about 1/2 inch. (This picture still shows the untrimmed seam allowance because forgot to trim before I peeled and then forgot to take a picture of the peeled paper after I remembered to trim.)

I opened up the fabric and pressed the seam allowance open. In this picture, I've pressed the seam open from the bottom of the picture about 3/4 of the way up. 

Then I laid the freezer paper back over the seam and pressed it to the newly joined fabric before going on to the next join. 

Here's how it looked on the front.

And here's how much I got done on the section. (There are 4 sub-sections here. I've sewn the vertical seams and some of the diagonals, but I haven't joined them yet.)

Pretty toes on my socks. 

I can't sew the whole section yet because I still need to get a pale gray fabric for the outer edges of the quilt. I'm having some trouble finding what I want locally, and my teeny tiny Kona swatches on my color card aren't helping me. I'm going to check with a local store today to see if they have a Moda card because I think there are some Bella Solids that might work (Maybe Feather or Zen Gray?) I thought of using Kona Silver but it seems a bit tawny to me, and I'd prefer something more bluish. Sigh. And it's so hard to tell colors from a computer screen. Anyway, I really need to get that fabric so I can move ahead more quickly. Anyone have any ideas for a really pale gray???

Since my pictures in this post are kind of clumsy, and garish (it's been really dark and rainy so I had to use a flash), I'll leave you with one nicer picture of my spring flowers in the front yard. Our crab apple exploded with blooms yesterday, but I can't get a good picture because of the rain. If the sun comes out I'll get one. I wish there was a way to "take a picture" of the aroma. It's heavenly. 

I'm linking up today with Freemotion by the River for Linky Tuesday, Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social and Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday. Buttons are on the right.