I got an email today asking why I cut so much of the Stonehenge Stars and Stripes 12 panel off, that by trimming it the size I instruct, part of the flag and the poppies are cut off.
I never see the actual Northcott fabric when I design patterns for them. I get the jpgs to import into EQ. It's been my experience in sewing quilt samples for almost 30 years that panels always need to be trimmed. Either they're not printed straight or they've been cut crooked by the quilt store, or some parts simply need to be removed.
It wasn't my intent to eliminate so much of the panel design that was important, I was only fitting it into the quilt design. I never stopped to consider what I was cutting off the panel.
There are a couple of ways to work around this.
IF Fabric 6 doesn’t need an excessive amount of trimming to be able to be cut on the straight of grain, you will have plenty for the 4th border.
Likewise with Fabric 7, but it would be close.
You should have approximately 3” left from the Fabric 5 1st and 3rd borders. You could add that to the top and/or bottom of the side border blocks in Step 3g to match the size of the panel/1st border.
OR you could skip the 1st border and simply sew the blocks to the panel, this wouldn’t make a difference on yardage. Well, you would still need to add something to the sides of the panel to make it 28½” wide, and then trim it to 42½” long.
The blocks in the second border can't be changed. When there are blocks like this, the panel and/or first border have to be a specific size in order for the blocks to fit. In this case, since the blocks can't be changed, spacers need to be added to match the size of the panel and/or border.
If you've purchased a kit, there isn't much you can do, possibly buy more of Fabrics 5, 6 and 7, ⅛ yard of each of those would give you enough extra to not have to worry about.
If you are using the pattern for a different panel, this may not be an issue at all.
It certainly wasn't my intent to slight our Military and Veterans.
I'd love to see pictures of quilts you make with this pattern, using any panel you may choose.