Bordering the scrap

When I left you yesterday, I had taken off the two extra rows and was left with this arrangement…..

Now it was time to think about borders!

I normally love picking out border fabrics but I found the scrappy nature of this quilt hard to deal with, so I started with what I KNEW.

I KNEW that I wanted to continue the white pattern into the first border.

I started with two yellowish inner borders….

….but both of those looked insipid!!

Next I played with my “Tried & True” fabric…..a mottled navy…..

Oh yes….that PERFECTLY frames the scraps!!

That pieced, it was time to figure out the outside border!!

I finally came up with four options……

This interesting fabric…..

This fun stripe

More 2-inch scraps (I would leave the white ones out)

More navy…..

I stared at the design wall, took tons of photos of each choice, and still couldn’t make a decision.

Then I did what I should have done in the first place, I called downstairs and asked for my husband (Michael) to come up and give me his advice!

His first comment was “I don’t really like any of them”!!

He then stated that the pieced squares were too much, the two fabrics were too dull and the navy was too narrow.

Wait….you like the Navy??? It can be wider!!!

So it was decided to finish it off with a wider navy strip and it was the PERFECT solution…..

Next, let’s get the back made and start thinking about quilting designs!!

Stay tuned for more!!

A Touch or Two of Red

Yesterday I shared the centerpiece to the “down the rabbit hole” quilt that I started……

Now it was time to add some borders. My first thought was to add a 2-inch red border…..

….but it was apparent that 2-inch was too wide. So, let’s look at my 1.5-inch red strips…..

I chose to cut them into various sizes, ranging from 2-inch to 4-inch…..

The nice thing about doing various sizes is that you don’t have to worry about ANYTHING matching up, and that is always a good thing!!

I sewed them into couplets…..

…..quadruplets……

….and kept stitching until I had one strip long enough for all four sides…..

I chose not to iron this strip until I had finished all of the piecing. While ironing, I tugged lightly at the strip to be sure that it stayed straight in the pressing process…..

Now I was ready to attach the borders. Some people spend a lot of time measuring and cutting but my process is a bit easier. Here it is…..

First I lay the border strips down the middle of the top……

…..and trim the borders to fit the top…..

Now both border pieces are the exact same size.

Next I mark the center of one border strip and match it up to the middle of one side of the top, and pin in place…..

Next, move to a far corner and pin the strip in place…..

Repeat for the other side…..

Now I look at the area between the two pins. In this case you can see that there is more fullness in the red border than in the quilt top……

This is where we can laud the stretchy qualities of cotton fabrics!!! I slightly tugged the fabrics so that the two edges lined up and then I held them in place with a pin…..

When it comes time to sew, I work between the pins, again stretching the fabrics slightly if needed……

After pressing both borders out……

…..you start the process over again with the other two borders…..

Quick as a flash, the first border was on…….

Now what will I add for the outside???

I won’t have time to work on it again for a while, so I will have plenty of time to figure that out!!

Let’s add a skinny border

A few weeks ago I was working on a quick gift and felt that it needed a skinny border to finish out the design and was thinking about making it 1/4-inch in width.

My first thought was to cut a strip that was 3/4-inch but decided that there was too much possibility for the border to be crooked or to vary in width as it went.

What I am trying to say here is that I wouldn’t be able to sew it straight!!!

Instead, I cut the fabric strip at 1-1/4 inches and sewed it onto the two sides…..

After pressing it well, I brought in a square-up ruler and trimmed the new border to 1/2 inch…..

Next, I headed to the machine and sewed the outer border on, using my VERY BEST 1/4-inch seam allowance…..

And….voila….. the skinny border was incorporated into the top…..

I have already shared the finished version of this quilted gift…..

….and you can read about the fabric painting technique in THIS POST.

How do you ensure a tiny border??

Tricks for measuring and adding borders!!

Several weeks ago I shared about this small quilt top for charity…..

As I was applying the borders, I started thinking about the various methods that quilters use to measure and apply their borders and thought that I would share my EASY way.

I love this method because there is NO measuring needed!!

I hope that you enjoy this video that shows my process….

I hope that this helps you the next time you have borders to apply!!

Border Mania

Yesterday my husband, Michael, left for a week in Scotland. Since I have worked hard to get the majority of my accounting work done and all of my Christmas presents purchased and mostly wrapped, I have given myself the gift of a week of quilting.

And the project is……Flower Pots!!……

As I posted several months ago, I had trouble deciding how to set the blocks together and, through trial and error, ended up with a series of borders in each block. First a 1/2 inch light green fabric that started out as the “pot” fabric but then changed to another fabric once I ran out.

Next came a 1 inch border in a dark fabric that offset the colors of the block.

Then the accent orange border which is 3/4 inch.

As I planned the large flower border, I ended up adding another set of borders prior to the flower border and had planned to put another set on the outside. That is where this tale continues.

As I started picking fabrics for the next 1 inch border, I really wanted the same fabric that had been used in the other 2 large framing borders, but unfortunately there was just barely enough fabric. I even pieced them together with a straight seam rather than a bias seam because I was afraid that I would run out……

And then as I measured, I was still a few inches short. SO, I dug thru my scrap basket and found this wonderful 13 inch piece…..

HOORAY, we were saved!!!

OK, that border was added and then the last 1/2 inch orange border (which, by the way, I only have about 6 inches of orange fabric left)……

Now came the fun task of figuring out what to do with the final border. I tried a light green……

….uh……NO!!!

Then a darker blue……

…..Still not right.

How about white……

…..DEFINITELY NOT!!

How about the green that is already in the inner borders…..

Better…..but not quite there….

And then it hit me……I HAD to finish the pattern by encasing the orange strip in two dark border strips……

Yes it looks great, but that means that I have TWO more sets of borders to add!!!

Back to the studio I go!!! Now, don’t get the idea that I am really upset….I am so happy about getting to sew that I don’t mind HOW many borders I have to add.