Anyhoooo... About this project. It's a biggie. I decided that the designer's original size of 18x24 was just too small so I used a handy, dandy free - yes, free! - program called PosteRazor - to resize the pattern pieces and print them out. I then started to cut out the whole pieces and then I was going to work on putting together the ones that needed to be taped together.
Okay. Bad plan. Let me just say that I don't know what I was thinking and since then have seen the error of my ways and am doing it right. You tape together the full pages first THEN cut them apart... yeah. I know. What was I thinking? So needless to say I will be printing out some more pages so I can actually save myself a bit of frustration.
Here is a quick help for others if they are resizing paper piecing patterns...
First. Resize your pages & print them out. Don't spend money on Kinkos or Staples or wherever you would normally resize your stuff. It's a waste. Do it at home. If you have a printer and some tape, you have all that you need - well, that and PosteRazor of course. I used 125% for my resizing and I have 1/2" of overlap.
Poor ruler has seen better days. It's my take to Sewing Saturday ruler since it is broken. Yup. I stepped on it and cracked it.
Line it up with the top pieces (if you have them. I do. Yes, I'm a bit worried that I got my math wrong but I was pretty sure I didn't. I will say that no matter how big it ends up, my youngest - and husband - will love it, and probably fight over it.
It is called Dragon's Tale and it is by Liz Schwartz & Stephen Seifert. I purchased it at equiltpatterns only to find it on Ebay for half the price, shipping included.... But on the flip side at least I didn't have to scan all the pages in to resize them. My husband was able to use a tool to break apar the pdf pages so I can use them in PosteRazor.
I have a long way to go. I've got more pieces - plus a few that I need to either partially rip apart or remake thanks to my boo boos.
One other piece of advice? Make yourself a fabric legend. I didn't at first and there in lied my problem. I don't know what I was thinking. I just jumped in and went for it. I'm not all that happy about my green color choices. I used what I had on hand and there isn't enough contrast between them but my friends at the quilt the guild swore it would look good in the end. There was slight shade differences between them. It is what it is now. I am not going to redo lots and lots of pieces - just the ones I absolutely have to!