quilt border fears

note
On Mondays, Jo of Jo's Country junction has a string challenge. She wants to finish all the string quilts in Bonnie Hunter's String fling book before her next book is published ( Dec 2018). I checked my quiltville projects to see if and what I wanted to do as part of the challenge. I decided to finish all the mystery quilts. I have them all started except maybe one ( orca bay). For May, I hope to finish 2 of them. This is double delight, and I have been working on the borders. I have become a little more comfortable in adding borders, although, I will still procrastinate some. This quilt has a fun four patch in the corners.

I had ordered this great vintage brown for the border.

  And they look fun together.

What are my greatest fears of adding borders?
1. That I will pin and sew and reach the end and find out that I ran out of bobbin thread - it happened.
2. That I will finish the quilt and have wavy borders. I am keeping my fingers crossed
3. That I will mis -measure and not have enough fabric after I have started sewing, or, a variation, that I will discover that I put the sides on the top or the top on the sides. no problem this time
4. That I will twist the border - nope
5. That I will lay it out finished and not like it. It will grow on me
6. That I will have spots I didn't catch in the seam -nope
and in this particular quilt
7. That I would turn the four patches the wrong way - It happened.
I checked and rechecked - wrong.  hmm... it doesn't look that bad. I shall call it a new variation.
I checked and rechecked to do it "wrong" on the second border, and I got it right sigh..... so now I have one set going the wrong way and one set going the right way. I have to fix one, it might as well be the "wrong" one and tada the borders are finished.

I am linking to:

Jos country junction

Making Monday  link in sidebar

Moving it Forward Monday 

main Crush Monday   link in sidebar

show and tell monday

design wall monday   

boms away   link in sidebar

Oh Scrap   link in sidebar

stash report May 5, 2018

I found this quilt kit at an estate sale. I loved the fabrics, and it was a great deal in my opinion. I couldn't be sure, until I came home and opened the bundle, but there were 16 yards, and it included the backing and binding. I figured I could use the fabric in something else if I didn't want to make the quilt.

I am still trying to invent the finishing for my block of the month Christmas quilt challenge hosted by Jo of Jo's Country Junction( I don't have the pattern).
I have sewn all the blocks together to form the center. The next part is to cut borders for the edges.

Stash report

Fabric Used this Week 6 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 217 1/4 yards

Fabric Added this Week: 16 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 126 3/4 yards

Net Fabric for 2018: 90 1/2 yards used more than purchased. 

I sewed at least 15 min 7 days this week. started square dance mystery quilt

I am linking to:

Slow Sunday Stitching

sunday stash at quiltpaintcreate

15 min to stitch at life in pieces

and Oh Scrap link in sidebar

soul in pink

May rainbow scrap challenge color is pink and rose. ooo how lovely.  But what a surprise to find only a handful of 2 1/2 strips in those colors. hmmmm I must not make enough pink things. With the colors so far, I have had a whole drawer full of strips in that color.

I had enough to make the monthly soul searching block at my Friday small group. I like it in pink.

I think I will spend some time outdoors today and soak up a little Spring.

I am linking to
 SewCan She

rsc18 super saturday

One monthly goal and a finish

May is here and time to set my goals for One monthly Goal at elm Street quilts

 I bought this elegant quilt kit a while ago from  a presenter to our guild, Lynn Schmitt Cibulka. The kit was chock full of fiber goodies, wool, velvet, sateen, brocade. I have been intimidated by it. It was costly and so different, that I was also afraid I would never actually make it. So my goal for it this month is to untie the ribbon, and look through it, and read the directions. And if that leads to something more so be it.

I want to finish double delight. It is ready for the final border. I didn't have any fabric in my crushingly overwhelming stash, so I needed to order it. I am waiting for it to arrive.

 I also want to quilt and finish quiltville's  carolina christmas.

But I did finish all 180 of the little friendship stars I needed to make for my self and my swap partner.

I am linking to:

TGIFF

Finished or Not Fridays   

Whoop Whoop

crazy mom quilts

And one monthly goal

Forward progress 2018

cutting Christmas snowflake

Cutting for this quilt is easier than most, as the cutting is for the pieces for the paper foundation piecing. It doesn't have to be spot on accurate, just enough to do the job. So go ahead and stack a few more strips, we have a lot of triangles to cut.
Cut 16 3 1/2 inch squares from the assorted red and green Christmas fabric. It can be any assortment.
These will be the center of each snowflake.
Next I used 2 1/2 inch strips ( about 19)  to cut the small triangle with the companion angle ruler. you will need 16 sets of 24 or 384 triangles in assorted red and greens. I found it took at least 2 strips of the same fabric to make 24. IF your scraps don't make that many, cut in sets of 8 and make 3 sets to equal 24. 8 triangles will make a round. The magazine pattern calls for 6 - 5 1/2 in squares and cutting them diagonally twice. I prefer the companion angle ruler.

If you use the easy angle ruler to cut 1/2 square triangles in the beginning of the strip, you will have bonus triangles and not waste.

This is the fun part, getting to see all the pretty fabrics and pet them as you cut them. Next week we will cut the background pieces.

Intro/ templates

fabric requirements


I am linking (links in the sidebar) to:
needle and thread thursdays
oh scrap

more project box decisions

project #4 from the project box included these 2 blocks and thangles and a set of moda strips from a scrap bag. This was the start at a workshop a couple of years ago. The idea was to use a pack of thangles, and then arrange all the half square triangles in whatever way we wanted. I discovered quickly, that I didn't like thangles. I liked the promise of perfect piecing, but not the sewing and stopping and sewing and stopping. or the fussiness of the papers.

I made 2 more to see if I would enjoy making them, and I didn't. I just wasn't in the mood I guess. I am not doing the original project. What else could I do? hmmm

I thought about just cutting the strips into half square triangles and making them sporadically as a leader/ ender, but, I have too many other projects started that I would rather do.
So, I decided they would be great fabric choices to add to the square dance mystery, I have been wishing to do. I have followed along as My Carolina Home has been hosting a mystery quilt and I have a basket of scraps that I would use set aside. I think it is time to start. That is the plan. If in a week I still have not started it. I need to concede defeat and send the fabric into the strip drawers.

I am linking to:

WOW

midweek makers

Jo's Country Junction UFO
Bee Social
Silly Mama WIP

WIPs with friends

time to finish a rug

My uncle sam's hat rug has reached the finishing stage. All the hooking is done, and I am really excited about finishing this rug. It is bigger than most of my rugs, but, it seemed to go very quickly. I didn't buy any wool for this rug, I was able to use what I already had on hand. The blues were a scrappy mix of dark blues.

I dyed the yarn for whipping the edges my self. I ordered 2 colors of blue dye because I wasn't sure which one I would want and I used them both. I used bright blue and navy. I wanted to get several variations in the color. Looking at the picture, they seem to be completely different, but they are much the same. I really don't like whipping the edges with yarn, but I think the colors will make it more fun.

and look what is on the longarm - Hippie baby is getting a turn.

Happy May day!

I am linking to:

Fiber Tuesday - 

Free Motion by the River

to do tuesday

too cute tuesday