Border Questions

Let me tell you, there is nothing like a quilt made from blocks with many small pieces to let you know how you're managing your quarter-inch seams!  A block with 97 pieces has a lot of room for error.  

I'm still considering an applique border of oak leaves and acorns for this quilt and thinking about how to do the border.  I have a question for you with experience.  Is it better to applique the border before sewing it to the quilt or better to sew the border to the quilt and then applique the pieces?  I know it would be easier to handle just a strip of fabric when appliqueing but isn't there a good chance of stretching it out of shape?  What say you dear quilters?  What are your experiences?

I have another question about a border for this little quilt which will finish at about 18" x 23".

I have a fat quarter of fabric which is definitely large enough to cut the border, but it's not long enough, going with the grain, without piecing.  Because it's a small quilt will it work to cut the fabric cross-grain for the border?  I know cross-grain stretches.  I would never do that for a large quilt but I thought maybe I could get by with it for this little one.  Does anyone have experience with cross-grain borders on small quilts??  Thanks so much!

Whether or not I have to sew strips to make borders, I think I'm still on track to get this little quilt layered and pin-basted by the end of the month.

I hope you're having a good week.

--Nancy.

There It Is, A Finished Top

I have an unexpected finish today.  My husband and I usually do errands on Fridays but he suggested we wait till tomorrow.  That left me with the afternoon to do what I would have done tomorrow:  measure, cut, and sew the brown binding onto this stars quilt.  So, it's done.

Mostly, the border lies flat.  In the photo above you can see three little ripples in the brown border on the lower right.  I don't know what's caused them and I don't know whether they're enough of a problem that I should handle them now or leave them and they'll ease in with hand quilting.  I'll leave the top on the floor for a day or two and decide.  I can't remember if I've ever had a top with slight ripples or not.

The brown borders are 4" on the sides and 3" on the top and bottom.  The center of this quilt is rather long and narrow and I thought wider borders on the side would help (though I know it's just 2" difference).  As it is now, it measures 71 1/2" x 92 1/4".  I have a post in the works about quilt measurements and proportions so I'll save my thoughts on this quilt and that topic for later.

I'm pleased it's finished.  I think I loved the stars and scrappy backgrounds more than I like the finished quilt, but then it's not really finished until it's quilted.  As with most quilts I make I see things that could have been done differently to improve the quilt (especially the borders in this quilt) but I'm chalking it all up to learning.

This finish meets my May One Monthly Goal (OMG) for participation in OMG It's Finished! Linkup May 2016 at Red Letter Quilts and my #BraveQuilter challenge at Pink Doxies for May. 

I'm also linking this post to
Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts
Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
TGIFF at Quilt Matters

--Nancy.
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Oh, Sew Carefully!

I so bravely and carefully sewed the colored strips together, aligning them just so, stitching straight, even seams

and it looks like they've become four straight borders!  Sometimes I surprise myself.

On to measuring and sewing them to the edges of the quilt on Monday.

Happy sewing to you!
--Nancy.
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Closer to a Decision (I think)

I added the narrow tan border around these stars with brown sashing, sure I would want it there before adding anything else to the edges of this quilt.  It seems to set off and separate the center from whatever's going to happen around the edge.

I laid out colors from the stars in border fashion and looked at those for a few days as I passed into and out of the room.   (Do any of you think "circus" when you look at these fabrics around the edges?)

For me, it's not really good enough to lay out fabrics like this -- fat quarters folded to look like I think I may want them -- when in the end I would probably use shorter pieces of fabric.  But I can't make myself cut up yardage or even a fat quarter when I know I may not use it or may want a different size in the end.  I have enough scraps already. 

Next I added a scrappy light border alongside the strips of colors. 

I think in my mind I'd always intended to use the light scraps to create a border, repeating the effect of the scrappy blocks behind the stars.  But somehow it doesn't satisfy.

This morning I took away the light scraps and tried a brown border beside the colors (imagining shorter strips of color).

Hmm.  Is this is the kind of quilt I think could go either way -- light border or brown border?  After living with the other options for a few days each, maybe brown is best.

I'm not ready to cut and stitch yet.  I need to let it rest and look at it for a day or two before I decide.  (And if I'm choosing this for my One Monthly Goal, I really do need to decide in the next few days.)  But I think I'm closer to a decision.

I'm linking this post to Linky Tuesday Party, Design Wall,  WOW at Esther's Blog, Let's Bee Social #123, and Oh Scrap!.  Thanks for hosting, ladies.

And that you, readers, for visiting.

--Nancy.
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My First Double Border (with the Poor Photo)

It's a terrible photo (which I'll try to replace) but I'm so excited about having this top ready to quilt I couldn't wait to post.

I've been without a computer for nearly a month.  I thought my old one could be repaired but it couldn't, and then I took time to deliberate about which computer to buy.  Then the company lost the boxes before they ever left the factory.  The computer finally arrived last week and a few days later my computer-geek-friend came over and transferred everything from my old computer to this new one.  It's been a bit of an ordeal but now I'm good to go.

The good thing is that I've spent more time quilting and reading.  (I'll post about books and a local quilt show another day.)  I finished hand quilting "Sunday Morning."  My hope is always to have a new quilt layered and basted before the last one is done but I didn't succeed this time because I didn't have a quilt top ready.

I decided on a narrow red border and a wide brown border for this quilt.  It's the first time I've put two borders on a quilt.  The side borders are narrower than the end borders.  The quilt just seemed to need a little extra length and I felt like the borders worked for the quilt.  At this point I like it a lot.  (Those tan squares remind me of caramels.)

I'm doing simple diagonal quilting using the corner squares as a guide.  I'm not sure what I'll do about the borders but I have time to decide.  (That's probably what I said when I was approaching the finish of "Sunday Morning," too:  I have plenty of time to get another quilt layered and ready to quilt.  Ha!)  Still, I think about the border as I quilt, wondering if continuing the diagonal lines into the borders will be good or whether I should consider a different kind of quilting around the outside of the quilt.

Apologies for the poor photo.  I'll replace it with a better one if I can.  (EDIT:  You can see a better photo at here.

I'm linking this post to WOW at Esther's Blog.

Thanks for visiting.

--Nancy.
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