Friday 27 April 2012

finished a “flimsy”


linking up with Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday
 

The blocks/strings for this quilt were donated to our quilting group and I brought them home from the first meeting I attended, having been asked to “do something” with them.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
They were all different sizes. Some were complete blocks, some were partial blocks and some were strings. The first thing I had to do was match the black fabric. You know, of course, that not all blacks are the same.

Last month I completed the blocks and squared them all to 5 3/4 inches. Deciding on the layout and sewing the blocks together was the easy part.

Then came the search for the perfect border fabric. At the group meeting two months ago I acquired a bag full of bright “children’s” fabric. The surfing fabric that forms the inner border was part of that acquisition.

When I sewed that border on, the whole quilt looked flat. I was tempted to rip the border off but I knew it would work if I could just find the right outer border. I brought these two fabrics home from the group’s store cupboard. In theory they should both work as they have many of the colours that are in the body of the quilt but – up close and personal with the quilt top – no way!
possible border fabric - blues
I thought yellow would do the trick so I scoured the cupboard, my stash and the local “Big Box Store” but bright yellow is either very popular or completely out of fashion – I couldn’t find any! On Tuesday this week, I bought this fabric in desperation.
possible border fabric - yellow stars
It has white stars on it but from a distance it reads as yellow. My intention had been to put a thin border of the yellow around the surfing fabric then add one of the two blue fabrics shown above. Just as I was heading to the cutting counter, I spied this fabric and thought it might be useful.
dotty bright
I bought half a metre (20”).

On Wednesday DD and I auditioned the yellow fabric. To my surprise and horror, it didn’t work at all. Then, in desperation, I tried the black. You can see for yourself what a perfect match it was!
2012 finished Dotty Bright top
Back to the Big Box Store on Wednesday afternoon for another metre (40”). I attached the borders yesterday. I am yet to find the perfect backing fabric. I don’t have enough of the blues above, nor will the half metre of the black border work.

I want to get on to the quilting. It won’t be done on the quilting frame because DD and family are going away for three weeks and it takes two of us to work the frame properly. It will have to be done on my Janome machine with the walking foot as my FMQ is not good enough for a real quilt yet.

Any suggestions?

9 comments:

  1. Great job with the borders. That black was just the thing to bring all middle together.

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  2. It is just right now-a winner for sure! Amazing how colors interplay-makes it exciting to work with quilts!

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  3. this is really a grabber. nothing wrong with straight lines, but wavy --slightly wavy--would be my choice. the waves hide a lot of unevenness in stitching, and the lines can be spaced about 4-5 inches apart. i would do vertical and horizontal. if you stretch the backing down tightly--tape it or pin to the carpet, add batt and top, when you pin baste it you should not get ripples on the back.

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  4. Great job finding a border for the quilt! Isn't it funny how an unexpected fabric just pulls it together beautifully? Thanks for linking up to TGIFF!

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  5. You were right! The black is perfect! I've also seen lots of large block backings lately. You could give that a try with your other fabric choices & any left over string blocks.
    Enjoy!

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  6. This is looking fab! I love the way the black brings out those bright colours and the border fabric you've used is perfect - well worth the search :)

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  7. I love that you made such a great quilt out of orphaned blocks & pieces! way to go! :)

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