Friday, March 8, 2013

Working on the Basket Medallion

I have been enjoying the Temecula Quilt Co. quilts popping up all over blogland and thought I'd try a similar X-shaped block for the next border of my Basket Medallion quilt.  The pattern I wanted to use asked that the inside rectangles be cut out on the bias with templates and you know me.  Bah humbug on the templates if I can possibly get out of using them!
The next border on Basket Medallion
 So...... somehow I ended up with a measuring miscalculation and the rectangles were too short.  What to do, what to do?  I had the block repeat measurement correct so I didn't want to end up with smaller blocks and then have to chop one block down resulting in awkward corner solutions.  haha.  Me?
Detail of border...
Okay, yes.  It's not something I'd normally be too upset about, but this quilt seems a bit too formal for that.  I decided to ditch the now too little corner triangles and cut newer, bigger ones so that my X-shaped block would now have a floating effect and my blocks could be the correct size to fit onto the previous border properly.
Sometimes mistakes actually make things better....
In the meanwhile, I realized that I had used up all of a couple of my cream fabrics.  Oh well.  Substitutions here we come.  And, get this--I love it!  I know it's hard to see in the pictures, but it adds another layer of interest to the quilt with the faint, random snowball look.  Some day I will think of these things before I have to make a mistake in order to get it figured out.*wink
Auditioning next border...
The next border needs to be a narrow strip of fabric without any piecing--just sort of frame the quilt and pull things together.  I'm still working as much as possible from my stash totes and the first fabric was the best I had come up with out of about 6-8 fabrics.
Auditioning yet another fabric....
Then I found the madder red stripe fabric!  Woohoo!  That's it.  That's the one I've been looking for! Unfortunately I only have one fat quarter piece of it, so this time I'm prepared to measure once, twice and then probably a third time for good luck.....

9 comments:

  1. Not a mistake, just a happy accident! Looks lovely.

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  2. hey it looks good I think! sometimes we just have to change things a little don't we

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  3. It looks great... like you planned it! I love the "X" blocks, and the red stripe fabric for the outside border is perfect!

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  4. That red for the border is perfect! I can't wait to see it finished.

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  5. Oh, love how this is coming along. Interesting to hear how that border came about. If the fabric you are auditioning is part of the Fredericksburg line by Jo Morton, I have a little over a fat 1/8th of it. I'd be happy to send it to you if you need it.

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  6. Those cross blocks are so effective! This is such a striking quilt top , I love it!

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  7. I LOVE your X blocks! I think they look great. So great, I may steal your idea to use on something. Don't know what, but it's too good not to use! And, great save. If you didn't tell anyone, no one would ever guess it was a save.

    Yes, I think that madder stripe is perfect too. Good luck! Your medallion is looking wonderful!

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  8. Yes I agree, your X blocks look great. Do you have a plan for how big this quilt will be or do you listen to your quilt and it will tell you what size it wants to be?

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