BORDERS, BORDERS EVERYWHERE

With the top of the Quilters Trail being finished,, now I have to decided how I'm going to do the borders. I just don't like the top then the main border,, I always like to have something (!) to define the stopping of the quilt and the start of the border...

The kit came with the flowered fabric for the border. The directions say to make a 6 inch border, no inner border... aaahhh I think it needs something else.

OK, here is the quilt again ( just to refresh your memory and you don't have to scroll down the page ( giggle )) The kit came with this floral fabric for the border and the blue for the binding This is good,,, I like these two. But the binding blue is a little bright to be used in the border. The red fabric on the right is 7 inches wide x 42 that I have left from the quilt and this is all there is -- I'm thinking ... ( ouch! it's late and I don't want to think too much ) I measured the quilt edges and there is JUST enough to get around - JUST enough.

Here are my choices for borders... of course the floral will be the big one, and I might still go 6 inches wide or not - depends on how it frames the top..... I also think that I would like to work the red in, but since I only have 7 inches wide, it will have to be 1 inch strips, which mean just 1/2 inch finished,, that could be ok. Then I have a cream and a batik blue that will fit in nicely.



I know these pictures are small but you can click on them to see better...

So, wise reader,,, what should I do??

STASHBUSTING - Week 3

I think I can finally post something here that isn't a big ZERO! I decided that since my Turning Twenty quilt was not something counted against last year,, I'm going to use that fabric to count towards my stash usage... Hey! I can count it anyway I darn well please - it's my game, my marbles, my rules - (( grin ))!

Fabric Added This Week --- ZERO !! That is a good zero!
Fabric Added Year to Date --- ZERO !! Another good zero!

Fabric Used This Week -- 12 yards for the Turning Twenty, 5 yards for top, 2 yards for the borders and 5 yards for the backing/binding

Fabric Used Year To Date -- 12 yards... YIPEE!! I'm on a roll!

I'm not going to count the fabric from the kit for the Quilter's Trail... it was a kit,, and not really from my stash.. my marbles,, right?

So how did you do?

THIS WEEKEND

This was a great weekend! It was our monthly Sit and Sew ( as Babs calls it ) at Tirane's house. I think each of us always looks forward to our Saturday... we can spend time with friends, show off our accomplishments, talk about family and enjoy just being together. I brought the Turning Twenty quilt to show, Babs had her Scatterd Scraps, Swooze was setting the Quilt of Valor quilt she had just finished and Tirane was -- gee, what were you doing???

Tirane and I have decided to make Double Delight from Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville Mystery. It's not a mystery any longer, since the end result is published on the web,,, but check it out! It's a great pattern! Tirane put the pattern into EQ6 and sent me the file to play with the colorings. I had some fabric that I really have been wanting to use and this is going to be the perfect vehicle for it. I'll save all this for another posting.

Anyway, I brought my FW with me and started sewing the patches for the Double Delight quilt. This is such a great machine to take to things like this... it's not heavy, it's not big and it sews such a nice straight stitch! I have named her The Tar Baby... ( you know,, she's little like a baby machine and she's black just like tar, and like in the story your fingers just sorta stick to her -- so she is The Tar Baby)

I had all the good intentions of taking my camera and taking pictures of all of our activities... LOL, you guessed it,,, no camera. - Maybe next time ??

Today I got the whole day to sew -- it was wonderful! DH was watching the football games and even took me out to eat tonite - YIPEE! While watching The MALTESE FALCON ( with Bogie! )I worked on the Quilter's Trail quilt - all the blocks are sewed together and the rows are put together so - it's all done except for the borders! We are having a great warm spell ( about 70deg ) so thought I would take the picture outside... I'm really happy with how it has come out.. Now I just need to decided on borders....

I'll leave that for another post,,, I'm sewed out for the day,, thinking a hot shower will feel good, then bed.
Have a good evening!

Turning Twenty

Turning Twenty - a great quilt to make when you want some mindless piecing and something SO easy to make! This was the first one I have done, but boy oh boy, if I need something for a gift, this is the way to go!
Joann's had fat quarters on sale for 99cents and since I belong to AQS, I get that extra 10% discount, so I figured that 90cent fat quarters would be fun to play with. 20 of them, $20.00,, not too bad! I had fun picking out colors and got lucky cause my Joann's had a good selection. (( just a word though,,, don't wash them first cause they really! shrink!! )) yea, I know, not the best quality of fabrics but I wasn't worried about that, I just wanted something very inexpensive that would be fast and fun to do.
Well, since they shrank on me, I had to revamp my cutting sizes so these blocks are probably not the exact size of the pattern -- but I'm really happy with it!
The top has been done for a little while but I needed to put on borders. I agonized over just the right colors to use (( don't ask me why this was so important,, it just was )) and kept holding up different fabrics to see what I wanted. Can you tell I really wanted to use that coppery color ,,LOL!

Well, this is the final product. A simple double border. I Like it! I think the dark outer border gives it a perfect frame. The fabric is a black background with tan/beige leaves (?) and the inner border is a light tan with white flowers/leaves. I'm thinking it needs just a general meandering for the quilting,,, nothing fancy at all!

I'll make another one!

StashBusting - Week 2

Well, I'm a little late with posting but (( ok, get out the violins and play the sad songs )) , I've been really sick - with ALLERGIES! I have NEVER had allergies like this before - couldn't breath and all I could do was cough. I coughed so much that my back and chest hurt to even move. I managed to get thru last week at work but I just couldn't go anymore and over the weekend I spent it mostly in bed. And you know, when you can't breath but you can cough,, it makes it tough to sleep...((are the violins still playing??))
Well, I went back to the doctor today and she gave me prescriptions for really strong cough meds, steroids for the allergies and some codine cough stuff so I can sleep. Guess I'm going to have to go back to work tomorrow! ICK!

Stashbusting,,,
No yards purchased, no yards used,,, I'm still even with last week.

BUT,,, my very favorite fabric outlet is having their 30% off sale and I DID NOT go!! I'm pretty proud of myself, cause sick as I was,,, If I wasn't committed to using what I have, I would have drugged myself up, pulled myself from my death bed,,, and gone shopping!

I'm proud of me!