And we are knee-deep in summer, quilting, and our fun blogging quilt-a-long!!

This week we are concentrating on the medallion itself!

There are a bunch of ways you can piece this middle medallion. Brooke and I happened to choose to use a paper-piecing pattern adapted by my sweetie pie friend, Hilary over at Youngtexanmama.com! (Yep, I know her in real life!!) Scroll down on her blog and you'll see her fabulous Marcelle Medallion quilt!

Here is mine!!

So, here's what I learned when making this medallion section:

1. Have enough fabric. Don't skimp at all!! (Brooke had already told me this, so maybe that's really her tip! But it was a biggie for me!!) I had a couple of places where I had to piece it after I had sewn it onto the paper because I estimated pretty badly! LOL!! 

2. Be fully aware of what piece is going to go where when it is finally put together!! So, I finished putting the block together completely, and my navy and my solid teal was switched on one of the middle pieces! Eeeeeek! I had to think…can I live with that for the rest of my life? Out came the seam ripper and a delicate piecing that turned out my humility portion of my center piece! (see above!!)

3. Go with your gut as far as color/fabric choices!! I adore this block so much because of the Cotton and Steel fabrics by Alexia Abegg (her line is called Hatbox!! Those tigers…ohhhhhh!!!) and the outside triangles are from BariJ's Emmy Grace! You'll be seeing a lot of both of those in the coming weeks!!

4. If you are using a paper-piecing method (there are a bunch out there!!), take the paper off before you piece the blocks together. I did this and felt like I could match my seams better! (Don't look too closely…only Jesus was perfect, remember!!)

5. Love the process!!! I sure did!! Even the seam ripping! And that's really what it's all about with this quilt along!!!!

Be sure and post in the Flickr group and on Facebook with your finished center!!!

Blessings!!