And February is almost gone!

Well ladies I finally got the quilt done that I have been telling you about and showing you some of the pictures.  It turned out so very well, in my opinion, I just hope the lady that I finished this for thinks the same thing.  I really love applique but sometimes it just seems that I have a very hard time deciding what to do in the background.  Can't wait to take my class in a couple of more weeks and see all the new things I get to learn!  Super excited about that even though it is still a couple of weeks away.

So here are the pictures of the finished quilt.

As I have told you before I did a very little detail work on the applique pieces but I did do the stems up through the tulip leaves.  I also did a line of stitching that runs beside the black applique blanket stitch that defines the area where the two leaves are together and also on the tulip petal.  This picture actually shows the meandering that I did as the background and it is fairly small, but not a micro thank goodness.  As it was this took an enormous amount of time.  In additon it shows the areas I picked out for some division between the blocks and the half feathers that I used in those areas as well as the channel outlining those.  I can tell you this is so much harder for me than you would think when you look at it!  Ruler work is definately not one of my best items.

This picture was taken while the quilt was still on my machine at it shows the chanels better and shows all of my bobbles much better!

 

This is not the best picture in the world, but it sort of shows the border.  All around the border I did triangles and then in the triangle that pointed in toward the quilt I did lines and in the triangle pointing away from the quilt I did an Egyptian Feather.  This is the first time I have used this technique also, but it turned out well and actually was much easier to do than I expected.  If you want to do something like this remember you have to measure your borders and divide so your triangles will be consistent!  I was fortunate that I thought of that before I started this!

 

This picture was taken after the quilt was removed from the machine and it is spread out over my bed.  Of course the light streaks are because the sun was coming in through the blinds.  I really do love this quilt.  The finished product is one I would be happy to have any time!

 

 

After this quilt was completed I did get another pinned on my machine.  I have to say here I can hardly wait to get my staple gun so that I can start using it.  It is on order.  That should speed up my process some and will be very welcome.  Anything that helps me quilt better and quilt faster is always welcome, as are new ideals.  Many of my ideals come from looking at things others have completed and belonging to a network of awesome quilters who are all much more talented than I.  This really makes me strive to make each quilt better than the last one.

 

In addtion to the above I have started taking a class at the local Senior Center with my bud Peggy.  Peggy teaches the class and it is free.  She shows people techniques and they make a quilt top which they can either sew while they are there, or take the things home to sew and bring them back to show everyone what they are doing.  People in the class also will bring in quilt tops that are completed and everyone will help them to pin baste the quilt if they are going to be quilting it themselves on their home machines.  People working together and helping one another achieving things they never thought they would be able to do!  Isn't that what it is really all about.  Yes there are always those in a class that would detract from the goals, but they can be tolerated and loved as we continue to help one another!  I hope you all have a wonderful quilty week!



Circles Yeah!

Well I finished the top today!  Big sigh of relief.  I know I am getting old because I forget so many things.  I think "I've forgot more, than I'll ever know."  I know that I have a creative mind because I am forever thinking, "oh, I can do this, or this, or this"  and the more I look at something the more ideals I will come up with about things to change and make it better or different.  I love it when I'm on a role.

Well recently a friend of mine had a new baby and I wanted to make something for the baby.  Hum, so here I go on the internet looking for something that would be quick and easy.  I'm not in real close touch with her and I just found out two weeks before that she was expecting and then wham the baby was here.  I was still thinking about colors and patterns for a quilt and the baby was born!  Well that sort of moved it up on the old time table so I was hunting quick and easy.

Let me tell you if you have never visited Missouri Star Quilter Company you have been missing out.  They have wonderful tutorials that are so easy to follow.  I love listening to Jenny as she explains the easy way to do things!  I've already made more than one quilt from that site and they are always exactly what she bills them to be!  Well Jenny has a tutorial for a self binding receiving blanket that is so awesome.  Just 2 pieces of fabric, one 30" square and the other 40" square and you just sew them together and fold and sew the mitered corners, turn and then use a decorative stitch to sew the border/binding down and you are finished.  These are made with flannel fabric and they are soft and cuddlesome!  Easy to wash too for the new mom.  I went to the fabric store and picked up the fabric for one of the receiving blankets and I had also found a changing/play pad at another site, tipjunkie.com that was another quick and easy thing to make so I made both and I guess I spent about an hour total on making both items, and they were inexpensive.  The changing/play pad just took 3 pieces of flannel 1 yard each and turned out very well.  Gosh now I had scrapes of flannel fabric that was just too pretty to stick in the scrap basket.  Hummmm

The changing pad was made as a circle and I had cut the circle from the middle of the fabric so I had 3 pieces of fabric that had a big hole out of the center.  I also had the trimmings from the receiving blanket the 30" square and the 40" square.  (Now about this time I am really wishing I had taken some pictures of the receiving blanket and the scraps I had left so you could see.)  Well this old brain did start to churn and I decided that I would make another flannel quilt and I would take my scraps that I had cut off and sew them into a pattern and put that in the center hole of one of the fabric pieces from the changing pad and make a nice little quilt out of my scraps.  I have other things that I have made that I put circles in and it was really quick and easy but apparently I forgot how that works and cut the thing wrong to begin with and lucky for me I cut it too big and not too small so I had to take the circle out and trim it down and then put it back in and it turned out right.  You do have to be careful when sewing the flannel as it has a tendency to stretch...(read understatement here).... and you have to make allowances for the stretch.

Finally I remembered to take a few pictures.

This is a picture of how the edge of the quilt looks with the circle in the square.

 

Some day I may learn to take good pictures, but that time has not come yet.  Sorry about that but this is just a picture of what the pieced center of the quilt looks like.  Just a 9-patch and then one of the other colors where I had a width of material 1 1/2" wide to use for sashing and I used most of the colors in some of the sashing so it is very scrappy looking.

Another picture of the edge of the quilt.

 

What can I say, now I am anxious to put a batting and backing with it and get it finished!  I think I am going to have a take a tip from my friend Sandy over at FrogPond and get all of my unfinished projects together and just determine that I am going to finish one a month or something until I am caught up!

 

I have a quilt on my machine from Pat that is just wonderful.  She does such precise piecing and it is  always a joy to work on her quilts.  They all look like they were made for competition!  I have some from Peggy and several from Kay and another lady brought me 3 this week that are going to be so much fun.  One is a feedsack quilt.  I can hardly wait but got a few others I have to get finished before I can put the feedsack on the machine.  In addition to that I have another lady that has asked me to make her a quilt that I have to get started on quickly but it is make the entire quilt from start to finish.  I'm anxious to do that one too because we picked out an awesome pattern and she wants it to have some bling so I found some fairy frost fabric in the colors she is using to go with the other colors to give it some Beee---Ling.  This should be fun.

 

Life is just so much fun when you're quilting!  I get to retire in a few more days so I will have even more time to have fun!  I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful week of quilting!

Another quilt top in the works.....

Okay, I'm officially and unofficially a quilt addict.  They don't have "QA" (Quilter's Anomious) meetings so what's a girl to do?  My plan is to keep on quilting.  This year I'm doing a block of the month at a local quilt store.  This is in addition to the block of the month with the local quilt guild.  Of course both of these are in addition to the other projects I have ongoing. 

Here are a couple of the blocks we have finished so far.  I really love them especially because these blocks are actually suppose to be different sized that you make an extra sashing to keep the blocks the same size!  Not many patterns will tell you to do that, but it is something that I have used in doing the T-shirt quilts and so I am familiar with the process.

This particular block was really easy for me since I had just
completed presenting my block of the month to the quilt guild and the patter was basically identical.
So strange.  I didn't even look at the pattern!



I know you aren't going to believe that I had to take this apart twice
before I got the placement right!  Some days I'm in another world.

 I'm really liking the blocks so far.  I'm not too sure about the colors and where I may want to use this particular quilt but we will see as time goes on how it evolves.

Really and truly taking these block of the month classes is a wonderful way to get some tips and tricks from fellow quilters that they may otherwise never even mention in the normal course of events.  Typically or maybe I should say historically they were very inexpensive and quilt shops used this as a draw to get customers into the shop so they could showcase their new products and new fabric lines.  The intent was that the customers once in the shop would typically buy other items before they left so having them in on a Saturday morning could increase sales 400 to 500% over other regular Saturday sales.  Historically these classes were not very expensive because basically they were advertising and using the advertising budget to purchase the fabric that went into the kits was less expensive than purchasing radio or television advertising and this had more impact on the bottom line that either radio, television or newpapers.  I can remember in the not too distant past when you could join a block of the month club for as little as $5.00.  If you attended every meeting and took in your block you had completed each time at the end of the day you would have squares for a regular size quilt for $5.  Then you would need to purchase the borders, backing, binding and you would have a quilt that was much less expensive that purchasing everything you needed to make a quilt.  This was a great bargain!  Alas I fear those days are gone.

Most shops now, if they have a block of the month club, you will pay anywhere from $39.00 to $129.00 for the full years blocks and then you must purchase the backing, borders, stripping and whatever else is needed to complete the quilt. 

Some of the members of the local guild have started something a little different.  As a guild, we make a block each month that will be collected and sewn into a charity quilt.  The guild purchased the background fabric and now we are making blocks and each month people bring in the blocks for the charity quilt and depending on how many people have brought a block that month, we may have enough blocks for a quilt and have some left over so we have a quilt that is made of blocks of the same pattern but with different fabrics except the background fabric is the same to give the quilt continuity and this works quite well.  Other blocks are saved and will be used at a later date in a sampler style quilt.  In addition to making the block for the charity quilt, some of the members have picked out coordinating fabrics they like and are using those fabrics to make a block and then at the end of the year they will have 12 blocks made from their fabric and the blocks will all coordinate to make a lovely quilt.  There are many ways to go about making a sampler quilt and many different block patterns available.  If you don't have a store or can't afford to do a store block of the month, and you don't have a local quilt guild then make up your own.  You can use whatever blocks and fabric you want.  My normal problem is I want to do it ALL!!!

Oh well, isn't that the definition of an addiction, not knowing when you need to stop!  As I said I am officially an addict!

I have also started a couple of new things.  On thing I am doing is finishing up a top that I put together about 3 years ago in a double wedding ring pattern, but it is non-traditional.

Now what the heck does non-traditional mean?  What it means is taking a traditional pattern and making a change and that will typically make the quilt look very different.  The "Double Wedding Ring" quilt top was typically made using a white background.  I decided to use a bubble gum pink with a tiny dark rose colored small dot.  The bands of the rings are done in greens all the way from yellow green to aqua with every shade in between.  I have finished the borders and it's on my machine now.

Just a little thingie that I want to mention about borders.  I recently picked up a book and when I was looking at the book I noticed that the quilts that were pictured in the book had borders that were obviously wavey.  That made me really start looking and what I saw was that a full 90% of the quilts pictured in the book had obvious problems with the borders and with the binding.  Some of the corners were more of a curve instead of square and this was very obviously not intentional.  When looking further at the book I noticed that the directions told you to cut strips across the width of the fabric for borders.  Problem!!!!

Fabric is woven with threads running across the fabric from side to side and threads going up and down the length of the fabric.  The threads running lengthwise have less stretch that the threads running across the width of the fabric.  A line running at a 45 degree angle from the selvedge of the fabric is the bias and has the most stretch.  When making a border you want to have the smallest amount of distortion possible, therefore a border cut on the straight grain of fabric (lengthwise) will have the least distortion, the border cut on the crosswise grain of fabric will have some distortion and this will give you a wavy border.   Now I do understand that you will have to purchase more fabric in order to cut your border this way, but if you really want to best possible quilt this is what you will need to do.  If you are making a quilt that you really want to get it right, then purchase the extra fabric and build your stash a little.  If it doesn't matter, then go ahead with the crosswise grain if you like.  I don't always do the straight of grain for borders, but I know when I don't my quilt border will be wavy, and every border that you add increases the amount of wave. 

Alone with the above I will say that there are different qualities of fabric.  There is good quilt shop fabric, and bad quilt shop fabric.  Get to know your shop and teach yourself to recognize if your shop is carrying a high grade of fabric or a cheap grade of fabric.  Just because it says quilt shop over the door does not mean the owner is purchasing the best for resale.  She is purchasing what she can sell at a price that will afford her the most business and the profit she desires.  Some quilt shops will sell you fabric that is a cheaper grade than Walmart or Hancocks or JoAnns.  As time goes by and you use fabric and see it as it goes through the washer multiple times you will begin to recognize the difference in a high quility fabric and the lower quality fabric.  Price does not tell the story!!!  Don't be fooled into thinking if it cost a lot then it is good fabric!  Also take into consideration the dyes used in fabric.  Dyes that are not heat set will fade rapidly in the sunshine!  Heat setting the dyes is an extra process that you will not find in the typical Walmart quality fabric.  My best advise is chose the best fabric that you can afford at the time you are purchasing.  Sometimes we have more disposable income than others and this will determine how much we have to spend on our quilting.  Take all of these things into consideration when making your purchases of fabric, and books!  Okay I won't start on books today!

I hope you have all had a great day and look forward to seeing you and seeing your projects soon!

I'm Back with my bestest bud!

Well it's been an interesting few weeks and I have been so busy with gardening that I didn't even have time to do any quilting!!  God has given us an abundance of fresh veggies this year and this busy little squirrel has been storing up for the winter.  Interesting fact, scientist say the squirrel will only find about 10% of what he stores for the winter.  I hope I find more!!  Oh well on to quilting.

I did finally get started back with some quilting and the first set of quilts I had to complete came from my bud, Peggy.  Some time ago we were at a quilting shop, I think in Knoxville, and Peggy found some fabric that was just sooooo Peggy.  She loves a truly good cup of coffee, and many early mornings in nice weather Peggy and her husband Mel will go out and sit on the poarch in the swing and just spend some quality time together, just sipping their coffee and discussing life and their hopes and dreams and plans as the sun comes up.  Doesn't this sound so loving and relaxing?  I always thought so.  At any rate when Peggy found this fabric which was a panel of squares dedicated to coffee lovers it was perfect for her.  Then we started picking out coordinating fabrics because Peggy didn't want just a panel with the squares and borders.  Peggy worked out her pattern, after we purchased the fabric, which is backwards, but the way Peggy and I often work.  When she made the plans for her pattern the quilt became a tad bit larger than what we had originally planned when we were purchasing the material so then the borders became a little more difficult.  After much soul searching and figuring and measuring this is the quilt she completed.

I really loved the way she took the blocks from the panel and then added a border around those to enlarge them and then she had a variety of different blocks she could have used.  The overall look of the block she chose is great with the Irish Chain effect going on with the placement of the fabric.

This close up picture shows the border around the squares more clearly and the Irish Chain pattern.  I think her fabric choices were wonderful.  It was a sort of back to basics when picking the fabrics.  First we had the panel of squares, then the large print being the border fabric, then the geometric being the border around the panel blocks with large circles, the small print in the same color family as the large print is the one with the coffee cups used in the Irish Chain, and the contrasting fabric is the blue, which also happens to be a geometric that reads like a solid, and then the light fabric is the beige which also reads as a solid.  Peggy found one other fabric that was a light medium print that she also loved and she picked up some of that also.  When you really don't know what you are going to do, it's nice to be able to pick up a little extra fabric in case the final plan expands as this one did!

The large print was one with the writing and the coffee beans and had the diamonds in a repeating pattern.  When using a fabric of this nature you want to be able to read the words at the top of the quilt so always check your orientation.    If it isn't words but is a directional print the same rules apply and then continue around the quilt with the bottom of the fabric pattern sewn to the body of the quilt on all sides.  Here is also a look at the light fabric with a medium print that was used as an inner border.

I think she did an awesome job with the miter at the corners on the large outer border.  This fabric would not have been nearly as effective had it been square corners with the red diamonds just running off the edge of the fabric, or into a complete stop at the seam line.

Peggy did a great job of putting this top together effectively and I didn't want to detract from her hard work by putting in a lot of quilting that would draw the eye away from the piecing so I went with stitch in the ditch for the quilting with the only variation being in the dark geometric with the large circles and I quilted a meandering circles pattern in those areas.  In the panel blocks, since they were a larger area than I like to leave without any quilting, I did some outlining of the pattern printed on the fabric.  Very simple quilting for a great quilt.  It is important to remember that quilting should enhance the quilt, not detract from the piece work.  In some quilts the quilting is the showpiece of the final quilt, and that is great also.  You are the one to decide how much or how little of the quilting you want to show in your quilt.

Hope you all have a great day!

Some quilts take longer than others!!

Some time ago I was asked to teach a short program on and provide a pattern for a block.  I was very excited that people I know had actually asked me to teach.  Well that didn't really last too long.  I struggled over what pattern to teach that would be somewhat easy to piece and yet go together in a fashion that made it appear to be a more difficult block.  I looked through book after book and searched online and it seemed that I couldn't find anything I felt would be a good project.  Finally, just a couple of days before I was scheduled to teach I found what I thought would be a great block!!  After looking at about a thousand patterns this was the one.  The blocks were relatively simple.  It was a square in a square pattern that extended out to another border around that and then an accent along each outer border.  The pattern was called Garden Path and the directions for cutting were simple.  There were no 7/8" or 3/8" to make things more difficult.  I took great pains to copy the pattern down correctly and made my sample.  I presented the program and everyone admired the block.  I was greatly relieved that it had gone so well....until......  The following week I had a telephone call from one the people and she literally blasted me that my directions were not right and there was no way anyone could make a block out of that pattern.  I thought I had been so careful, but not careful enough.  I had left out one line in the directions.  Now what is that saying about "the best laid plans of mice and men...."

Well, I decided to go ahead and make a quilt using the block pattern that I had demonstrated.  First I had to decide on fabric.  Just prior to these events a friend, knowing how much I loved oriental patterns had given me a piece of fabric that she had that did not match anything in her stash.  She was trying to whittle down her fabric stash to more manageable proportions.  (Something I have never, ever, ever had the urge to do.)  This particular piece of fabric was an oriental garden complete with pagodas.  Well the name of the pattern was Garden Path so why not use that oriental garden fabric to make a garden path, and then I pulled out some more oriental prints from my stash that contrasted with the piece I was given and then I picked a very neutral background.



This is the garden path block  and some of the fabric
I chose to go with the piece of fabric I was given.

 I decided that I really didn't want to go with a traditional sashing pattern, that this quilt should have some special quilting and I wanted room to do that quilting.  At the time I was thinking about ferns and feathers.  Oh well, it wasn't time to quilt just yet, I had to finish putting it together.  I had 12 blocks and I wanted to make a quilt that was larger than a lap quilt and smaller than a bed quilt, and I did not want to use just a 2" sashing around the blocks so I decided to do some math.  Gosh, who would have thought that math would have come in so handy.  Well actually I loved math so it wasn't a hardship.

You can see in the above picture there is a variation in the spacing between the blocks, and in the picture below.


This picture gives a better picture of the different block setting.
You will notice the points are closer to the border for some blocks.
The points on the blocks are not in a regimented line.

 Quite simply I decided how wide I wanted the inter portion of the quilt and basically I decided that I would use the 2 1/2" sashing measurements and I would typically use 4 of those for a total of 10" of sashing.  Instead of cutting 4 - 2 1/2" strips, I cut a 1" and a 4" and a 2" and a 3" and that was my 10" of sashing and then I just put those in different places in the row.  I sewed a strip on each side of the first block and then on 1 side of the other 2 blocks.  Then I carried it a step further and used the same technique for the sashing on top and on bottom.  The final result was to give my quilt a very unique appearance in the setting and it is not one that you will find in a pattern book.  I like things simple, but I like things unique.  I guess this is all part of the reason I love freehand quilting on my machine.  Every quilt is different.  Even if I tried I could not exactly duplicate any quilt.  That is part of my love for quilting, the creating of something unique.

Well I got the blocks and sashing together, in much less time than you would imagine.  Just about 2-3 hrs and I was ready for borders.  Borders are really special things.  You simply don't want to forget the function of the border.  The border functions to stop the eye.  It says "Okay that was the quilt and that is the extra special portion, take time to look again."  Really the border is not there because you want to make the quilt bigger and so you just added borders until it was the right size.  This particular quilt, I felt, was to have very special quilting, so I didn't want a first border that would overwhelm, just a little pause and then we will see what's next..  My choice was a very narrow, green and black geometric that really looks almost like a solid black with a little texture.  Turned out to be just what I wanted.

Now I was ready for a final border and I wanted the oriental fabric again, but it needed to be a fabric that combined many of the colors I had used in the blocks.  The cards were the perfect choice as far as I was concerned.  I did make sure that the fabric was cut so the cards were all correctly oriented to the person viewing the quilt.  On top the cards are all with the top of the cards toward the outside top of the quilt and down the sides they cards are all with the sides of the cards on the outside of quilt and still with the top of the card toward the outside top of the quilt and the bottom border has the top of the cards against the border and the bottom of the cards pointing to the outside edge of the quilt.

This picture of the bottom left corner of the quilt shows
the fabric orientation of the border.

It was actually hard to tell where the fabric was seamed together which was an accident on the first one and then I started striving for that look on the second one and it worked out very well if I do say so myself.

Well now it's time to pick out the backing and of course I had to go with another oriental fabric.  This is one I really loved and I had to piece the backing.  I learned a long time ago that when you were having to piece a backing the correct way was to make all 3 pieces the same size or put a larger piece in the center and identical smaller widths on each side.  It is not preferred to just place a seam down the center of the backing.  Well since I had gone to so much trouble with the rest of the quilt, I needed to go all the way, and since I had matched the pattern so well at the seams on the border I wanted to see if I could do that on the backing also.

                           !                                         
It really is difficult to tell where the seam is in this picture. 
I put an exclamation point under the seam and the seam is not at the end
of the wooden post but going through the center of the second flower
from the end of the post.

All in all I think the quilt turned out very well.  I did do some special quilting, but not what I had originally envisioned.  I actually love the quilting and how it goes along with the whole theme, but I'll give you a look at that next week. 

Happy quilting.

Still on the Jelly Roll

I recently have been using some Jelly Rolls.  I must confess that Elanore Burns is the one who made me do it!!  She had a great class in Paducah a couple of years ago that a couple of friends and I took and we made 3 quilts out of a Jelly Roll plus some coordinating pieces.  We had all picked up different colors and so all of our quilts turned out very differently.  I made the 3 quilts, one friend put hers together into 2 quilts and another put hers together into one quilt.  They all turned out great and so very different that no one would have realized they were all from the same basic beginning. 

Next I taught a class and everyone there put their quilts together differently and everyone had different fabrics and they all again turned out very unique. 

Well now I have bought another Jelly Roll, but didn't want to spend a lot of money on other fabric to go with it so I just picked up 1 color that went with all the fabrics, a tone on tone, and started my quilt.  I wanted something that would be easy and simple to make so I decided to make my own version of the "Fractions" Pattern.  I took my jelly roll fabrics and sewed a strip of the tone on tone down one side of each strip.  The Jelly Roll was 2 1/2" and I sewed a 1 1/2" strip of the background fabric.  Then I cut each strip into 3 1/2" rectangles.  Then I started sewing my pieced together.  I would pick out two pieces placing the jelly roll strips right sides together sewed the 3 1/2" side.  This made a nice rectangle with the background fabric on both sides and the jelly roll fabric in the middle, 6 1/2" wide and 3 1/2" in length.  I sewed all of the pieces together. 

Next I placed the pieces right sides together and sewed down the 6 1/2" side.  This gave me one block with the jelly roll pieces in the center, flanked by the background strip and a  6 1/2" square block.  After sewing all of the pieces together into the 6 1/2" square blocks I began joining the blocks.  I would place 1 block with the background strips horizontal and the next with the background strips vertical.   The worked up into a great little pattern and I just kept adding the blocks until I had used them all up in the top.

By alternating the placement of the blocks, it appears that each
block has a border.  Looks a lot harder than it was :)

As the quilt came together I decided that I wanted to put a triple border on this quilt so I picked up enough of one of the fabrics in the jelly roll to put a border around the quilt and then used the background color for the 2nd border and picked out another fabric in the Jelly Roll for the 3rd border. 



This quilt was super easy to make and was really a lot of fun.
Using the Jelly Roll really made this one easy.  The green was the only
fabric that was not in the fabric line but I'm thrilled with the
outcome.


It really doesn't take a lot of imagination to use a Jelly Roll and make a great quilt.  You can purchase patterns and/or books in a variety of places, or you can do as I did and decide to just sew it together in a pattern of your own choosing.

When I purchased my fabric and decided on the border fabric, I didn't really know the final size of the quilt.  Well, I sort of ran short of fabric on my last border.  I was sewing the last border on the week after the tornado hit Ringgold, GA and the local quilt shop was totally demolished.  I thought, on no, I'll never be able to find that fabric now.  (I'm really not into buying fabric off the internet even though I know I could if push came to shove.)  I rounded up every tiny scrap I had left and sewed them together.  The last border had about 20 pieces of fabric in the last 16" but the fabric was a print and it really didn't show.  Believe me when I say, I really sweated over that one!!  This will be my tornado quilt.

In memory of the tornado and those who lost so much, I quilted tornados in the corners of the quilt.  This quilt now has more than one special memory, the tornado, and my friend who inspired me by bringing her "Fractions" quilt to me for quilting.  My wonderful friends are a constant source of inspiration and I thank God for each and every one.

I hope everyone has a great day and gets to do some sewing or quilting this week.  Its a wonderful hobby that can produce some really great useable gifts.

Borders and things



Tossed Nine Patch with Borders



Nine Patch and Borders

 I had thought about the ideal of posting about colors today, but instead










want to share some information about borders.  Borders are wonderful things.  They create a frame for our quilts.  They tell us, here is where the pattern stops.  My job is to brings all those wonderful blocks together and enhance the colors and pattern.   Now I know that many people have taken blocks they have made and just decided they don't want to make any more of those blocks, or else they ran out of one of the fabrics and the quilt is not as large as they wanted it to be so they add very wide borders just to enlarge the overall area of the quilt and make it fit the bed.  This is doable with the right combination of borders.  There is absolutely nothing that says your quilt has to have only 1 border!!  As a matter of fact, borders are a wonderful way to bring several different block sizes together to make a quilt (Tossed Nine Patch with Borders).  In this particular quilt I used a couple of different charm packs.  The problem was the sizes of the squares from the two charm packs were different.  I believe one set had maybe 5 1/2" squares and the other had 6 1/2" squares.  Being the lazy person that I am, I did not want to recut the squares.  I simply made the blocks and then used one set at an extra border and the other set as the main part of the quilt.  This also had the effect of enlarging the size of finished to quilt which was an added benefit.  If you have never tried the "Tossed Nine Patch" pattern it is quick and easy and you can easily complete a quilt top in an afternoon.

Borders are also a way to take a few blocks and make a small quilt (Nine Patch and Borders).  After completing a group of quilts from a Jelly Roll, I had 4 nine patch blocks left and some other odds and ends of fabric left over from the project.  Well I didn't want those orphan blocks to just be tossed into a basket somewhere and left for no telling how long before I pulled them out again.  I decided to just go ahead and try to use all of the scraps from my project and sewed the 4 blocks together with sashing and cornerstones and then started adding borders.  The borders are all different sizes and a couple have cornerstones and the first border I actually used two different fabrics.  The quilt turned out really cute and I have had people tell me they want to make that quilt.  It's a great way to use odds and ends of fabric.  The entire fabric line for this quilt was batiks and this is what makes the quilt work.

You can see from these pictures of quilts I have made that borders can be used in different ways and there are all types of twist to regular borders that can be added.  If you don't have enough fabric to do a standard border but really want to use that fabric think about adding a section in a couple of the borders pieces that coordinates.   These extra pieces can be added at one corner of the quilt or you can do opposite corners on the quilt.  Doing opposite corners is always a good ideal and makes people know that you planned this effect and not that you just ran out of fabric, which you did but everyone doesn't need to be aware of the fabric shortage. 

Now to the main reason I am writing this particular note.  When you add borders, please don't cut a piece of fabric the width you want for the border and whatever length and just match the top and start sewing, and when you run out of quilt top cut the border to match.  Every border will be a different length and will make the quilting much harder.  Lay your quilt out and if you need to you can fold it in half.  Fold top to bottom first and measure to get the length of the side borders.  Measure in 3 places.  The left side, the right side and the middle of the quilt.  Hopefully your measurements will all be within 1/4".  If they are, cut your border the length of the smallest measurement.  This will even work if there is up to 1/2" difference.  If there is more than 1/2" difference then you will need to add the 3 numbers together and then divide by 3 to get an average.  If your three measurements are 38 inches 36 inches and 37 inches then add 38, 36, and 37 and you will get a total of 111 inches.  Divide 111 by 3 and the answer is 37.  Cut your borders 37 inches.  Yes you will need to ease the borders and ajust them to fit so be sure and pin the top the bottom and the middle of the border to the top the bottom and the middle of the quilt top and then as you are sewing the difference will be eased or stretched more evenly which will help.  Repeat this process for the top and bottom borders again folding right to left and measuring at the top the bottom and across the middle, and cutting your border according to the above formula. 

Why do I recommend this method.  Your quilts will turn out with square corners.  If you machine quilt or have someone else machine quilt the finished top you will have fewer pleats and fewer wavey borders.  I've quilted a lot of quilts and very few quilts have square corners and very few quilts have borders that are not wavey.  Don't beat yourself up over the quilt top not being perfect!  I've always been told the sign of a good carpenter is the one who can hide his/her mistakes.  I believe the same applies to the quilter.  I've also always liked the Lady Godiva rule.  If Lady Godiva were sitting on her horse, naked, with her long flowing hair her only covering beside your quilt hanging on a line, a car load of people are driving down the road at 50 miles per hour and those people notice the mistake in the quilt, then you need to fix it.  If they don't notice the mistake in the quilt, then it's fine.  Finish it and enjoy the learning experience.

I hope you enjoy the post and have a happy quilting week.