The Two, Big, Bad Borders For This Round of Progress on The Hst Medallion

So this time I went bold and cut out two hst borders at the same time. The last time any work was accomplished on this quilt was back in February which is pretty pathetic. Time to make some serious forward progress or throw in the towel.

The Hst Medallion quilt

Mostly I've just been slacking from a general apathy in doing the work, not lack of desire to see this quilt grow. These hst borders have been 'easier' overall, it's just that they are quite, quite tedious. Lots of time involved in the cutting and sewing as the size of the quilt increases.

I have been referring to a little list of notes that helps loads in getting me to the point of a hst border that will sew on with minimal adjustments. That's so helpful, especially after a couple months of not working on it at all. Of course that doesn't stop me from making mistakes. Don't think that! The last blue border I sewed on ended up with all the triangles pointing the wrong direction, and no amount of flipping that border around ended up changing anything important. Funny how you can just keep trying and trying. Maybe if I do this, maybe if I do that? But it just won't work unless you take it all apart 'cuz the pieces were sewn together wrong in the first place!

Hst Medallion quilt with 6 hst rows

The ironic thing was, I actually deliberated whether to change the orientation of the triangles on that border {prior to sewing} and thought, 'Nah, that blue is probably distracting enough without anything extra going on.' Hah! Guess it was just meant to be. I always kind of knew that there would be a time when the triangles went wonky on me anyway. It just happened later in the process than I expected.

Now it has 7 hst rows

And so I left the blue triangles as is and left my seam ripper to rest in peace. In the original inspiration quilt, there are various instances where the maker let the triangles do their own thing. Sometimes for only one row on one side of the quilt! It's really interesting but almost impossible to notice unless you look very carefully at the quilt. Just a casual glance at the quilt fools the eye really well and it's easy to assume all the triangles are all positioned in perfect repeats. They're most definitely not.

Love that about antique quilts! Which makes it simple to take it in stride when it happens around here. {Talking to myself. *It's okay. We love that. Throw the seam ripper away. Quirks and mistakes are good stuff. And on and on till I quit beating myself up for making a, sheesh, simple mistake!}

Just makes me smile...

At this point I'm starting to wish {wonder?} if these triangles should have been made smaller. Mine finish out at 1 3/4", but the problem is.....  If I make 11 rows of hsts like the original quilt AND include the 2 larger end borders, my quilt will be well over 100". Yeah. Crazy talk.

Still mostly square....

Back at the beginning, my bumbling math led me to believe that I could make 10 hst rows plus include the 2 larger rows and squeak in around 90". My math was wrong. So wrong. At this point I sit here, absolutely delighted at how this quilt is shaping up, but thinking, Thinking, thinking.... Wowsers! it totally needs more of those hst rows. That's what I keep coming back to. I just can't. Cheat. This. Quilt!

Loving this quilt so much....

Hmm.... Maybe it's time to bite the bullet and just make another king sized quilt. What do I really have to lose? Well, besides time, my remaining patience, and that little bit of hair that I pull out whenever the quilt starts to overwhelm me....