Posted on by agilejack

Itching to Start a New Quilt… But Not Yet

I’m really wanting to start sewing on the Interweave quilt that I cut Brandon Mably fabrics for earlier this week. But I promised myself that I wouldn’t start until I finished the borders on my Flower Baskets quilt. So I dug in tonight and got it done!

I wanted to add borders to make this quilt a rectangle. So I added 2.5 inch borders on the sides and 6 inch borders on the top and bottom.

I didn’t want to wrestle that large top up onto my design wall to photograph it. It won’t fit. So if the weather cooperates I’ll take it outside tomorrow and get a good photo of it.

The plaid fabric isn’t printed perfectly straight. And across a longer length of fabric the wonkiness gets more and more noticeable.

Since the side borders are relatively narrow, that wonkiness wouldn’t be very noticeable. But on the wider top and bottom borders I was worried it would be really disturbing. So I decided to piece the top and bottom borders with 6×10 inch pieces. It has the same feeling gas the sashing that is all cut differently. And it seems to have alleviated the issue I was afraid of.

Here’s one length of the wider pieced border.

It will be interesting to see it in one piece tomorrow.

I was really missing my friend Linda as I was pressing all these borders.

But I managed to get it all done.

Ha! You can see the crooked plaid in that length of narrow border! Oh well… too late to fix it now!

Here’s a corner to show the difference in the width of the top and side borders.

I’m really glad this is done and I can start working on my new quilt tomorrow!

We’ve had so much rain the last few weeks. I’m pretty sure we’ve had close to 8 inches since my brother and SIL were here a few weeks ago. It rained most of the day today but cleared up around 3:00. So we got out for our first walk in a few days. We were all glad to have an opportunity to stretch our legs and get some air. We walked almost three miles!

Even though it still feels like winter, I’m starting to see signs of spring as we walk around the neighborhood.

I was so surprised when we walked around a corner and I saw that pink rhododendron in full bloom. It’s the first one I’ve seen and it seems so early!

All these blooms are making me feel hopeful that winter is on its way out. And next weekend we welcome Daylight Saving Time. The day the time changes in the spring is my favorite day of the year!

All our winter rain does make for wonderful spring blooms.

I keep forgetting to share this video I took of the sun setting at the Oregon Coast a week ago. It was such a great ending to a wonderful day.

I’m scheduled to play pickleball in the morning, followed by a trip down to Molalla for Rico’s weekly sheep herding lesson.

If we get rained out in pickleball, I have been invited to play with a group in a local school. So I’m covered regardless of what the weather decides to do. There are actually some snowflakes in the overnight forecast.

25 Replies to “Itching to Start a New Quilt… But Not Yet”

  1. your weather is just like ours in UK…rain, rain, more rain. Snow flurries …your spring flowers are glorious…ours are blooming…daff’s, crocus, etc. we’re into spring season since 1st March…my favourite month is April …I was born in April maybe that’s why… new growth, new life, the year is coming alive…just missing is the warmth at the mo’.

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    1. I love the spring. Our winters aren’t as cold as a lot of places but they are wet and dark. I’m always so happy to see the sun return. And all that water makes the spring really spectacular here.

      Anne

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  3. The sunset was so beautiful, thank you fir sharing! I sure miss watching the sunset seemingly slipping beneath the ocean waves. Spectacular! I love your plaid and no problem with it not being even – it adds character and it was meant to be that way! I do love your piecing the large borders too ❤️. Have a fabulous pickle ball morning and of course – cheering for Rico! 🥰 hugs to Rico and Bender.

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  5. A lot of the KFC prints that have a linear element (carpet cookies, embroidered flower) are wonky. And not, as you have noted with the plaid, not just a little bit wonky, but a lot.

    I like using these linear prints as borders, and I don’t mind that they are a bit “loose”, but I do not like when I have to make big efforts to prevent them totally wandering off the grid.

    I have gone to cutting off-grain to get a more linear effect when needed, but your 6″ block technique is *brilliant*!! Looks fantastic, Anne, well done!

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    1. I made a bag lining out of Kaffe’s sunburst fabric a couple years ago. It was really a chore to get the pattern all square in the bag lining.

      And now I can’t believe I used that fabric for a bag lining! It’s impossible to find now! I’m glad I do have some more in my stash.

      Anne

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      2. There are so many designs I’d love to see come back. I actually have a good puppy of the various color ways of sunburst in my stash. shhh. Don’t tell anyone!

        Anne

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  8. If you cut the plaid borders on the lengthwise grain the plaid will look straighter. I do that with dots that run in rows too. It’s not easy to always plan ahead and have enough length to cut the borders that way though.

    I wish we could have some of your rain. We’re headed into the third dry year in a row. 

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    1. Hmm. Hadn’t even thought of that. It would take a good deal of yardage.

      I wish I could send you some rain. There was water standing in the fields today… the ground is totally saturated.

      Anne

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      1. 2.5 yards is usually what I buy if I’m thinking of cutting borders on the lengthwise grain. I would only use about half of that for borders so the rest could be used in the quilt. The thing is you would have to be preplanning a border from the beginning which I don’t do very often.

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      3. I usually don’t know if I’ll do a border either but having a piece large enough to cut lengthwise helps with my decision. Lots of times I use the long leftover piece as the extra piece on a backing. When I find Kaffe for $6.99 at Hancock’s I usually purchase a few.

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  9. Wanda’s suggestion is a good one and validates my “never buy less than 2 yards” rule of fabric acquisition!

    And cutting on the lengthwise is great but some fabrics ie. the embroidered flower fabric have strong linear elements that run selvedge to selvedge, so you must just do the best you can.

    Perhaps fabric designers should make a note to self: “when designing selvedge to selvedge linear designs, print them reasonably straight to grain”.

    !!!

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      1. Agreed! But I think the fact we are having to look at creative ways to use the linear aspect of these prints means the wonky printing has gone a bit far. I love the “loose” feel of these prints but a tad more restraint with the linear ones would probably make them easier to use!

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