Second Border Prompt for Bramble Blooms QAL--{BBII} & Eek! a Bias Vine Tutorial

Here we go! This is the second {and last} prompt for Bramble Blooms II. It's taken awhile to get here and the pictures are abysmal. Ughh! Sorry for that, lots of late evening quilt play. 

Second BBII Border Prompt: Short and sweet, the prompt is as follows: Piece together an outside border as simplified or as complex as you like. Add floral applique motifs similar to what was used in your first Bramble Blooms quilt. These motifs can be exactly the same as the originals {BBI quilt} or not. Feel free to size them up or down. It's all up to you! Just try and keep the shapes relatively similar so as to keep good continuity going with the series. If you want to end up with a floral vine look for your quilt, scroll down through the post for tips on bias vine making.

BBII-A with borders cut to desired measurements

As per usual, you can add an additional 'coping' border in between the last border prompt and the newest one. As you can see in my BBII-B quilt, pictured below, I am in the process of adding a thin, striped coping border. Not for any specially intended whole-quilt size, but more for overall interest. Totally optional. If you need one, go ahead and make it happen! We want our quilts to be happy, right?

BBII-B with border fabrics still being auditioned

When adding borders with applique, don't actually sew them onto the quilt until after the applique is stitched down. {Unless that's your preferred method!} It's much easier to stitch applique motifs to your quilt on these smaller border widths than to wrestle with the whole bulk of the quilt. Measure out the proper length of the intended borders and maybe add 1/4-1/2" extra for stitching shrinkage. Butt these border lengths up against the quilt and play with the applique design until you're satisfied, then pin or baste the applique elements you choose into place. Sew them down in whatever method you like, and then after all parts are secured, sew each border onto the quilt in the proper order. I generally add the side borders first and after that, the top and bottom. 

Label your measured border units

Thoughts on my BBII border work:  Obviously still a work in progress, the applique on both of my BBII quilts will include vines. One quilt will have vines that completely wrap around the borders and the other will have a flowy individual vine at each border side. I love including vines and flowers in my work! Bias vines are a really easy way to include a bit of sweetness and whimsy into our quilts and also, create a bit of movement and energy. 

You can use large single pieces of fabric or even incorporate a purposely pieced background look behind the applique--perhaps more of the patchwork. Another, oft used design element around here, is to piece together somewhat scrappy, complementary colored fabrics instead. This is a deliberate choice because it helps use up languishing fabrics {something that sorta thrills me}, and also keeps me from making mad, panicked runs to the fabric store. And I love the look, so yeah, there's that. Do try to think about the little details that will add to your emotional response when later viewing the quilt. 

People sometime comment on the 'Quilty Folk' aspect. I truly believe a large part of the overall picture is this utilitarian, improv. style of making. Incorporating lots of random {hit-or-miss}, smaller cuts of fabric. It's crazy how cozy and sweet it can suddenly feel when the right fabrics start playing really well together. But why???? I don't know. It's not like you can plan for it. Or can you? 

It doesn't make sense to stress about not having larger pieces of yardage for borders when the workaround time and again, ends up looking better. So make yourself do the workaround. Take your bland and unassuming fabrics and just start playing with a purpose. We're only talking about one border length at a time! How hard is that? Don't be shy about putting it all to work {no matter how small or odd the fabric} if the color seems right or perhaps not too wrong.

Puzzle piece various potential fabrics together until you have a good looking unit. You'll know if it's working or not and yes, some fabrics may have to go! Then cut each of the chosen fabrics to the desired border width. This may simply end up being the width of your most narrow piece of fabric. You might choose to sew 'make-do', much smaller fabric pieces instead. Or you might determine the border width based frankly on the fact that you can get two border lengths if you cut the fat quarters in half at the 18" side of your fatquarter. Whatever works best. There are no rules!

It's usually easiest to figure out the scrappy border backgrounds while these fabric bits are laying in place alongside of the larger part of the quilt. One piece of fabric at a time, take it over to the cutting mat, make the cuts and then promptly return it in place. Keep doing this until there is plenty of fabric to make up the entire border surround.

Audition for satisfactory look and feel, as to subtle color flow and fabric print pairings.......,  THEN go ahead and cut and sew to the intended total border length measurement--per side. If you look closely at the above pictures, my BBII-A quilt has each border side cut and sewn to the precise border measurements, just waiting for the applique stitching. The BBII-B quilt borders are only cut to proper width, and you can see where I'm still playing with where to cut and trim the fabric pieces {as to length} for good overall appearance. 

Always label your sewn, measured-to-length border units. Left, Right, Top, Bottom. The last thing you want to do is sew applique onto the wrong border or potentially sew a border length onto the wrong side of a quilt.

Playing with applique

TIPS AND TRICKS FOR MAKING A SIMPLE BIAS VINE:

Okay, you know me, I'm all for free-wheeling and making the best of what is available. That also goes for making a simple bias vine. You don't need any fancy tools and it's totally doable with third of a yard cuts, fat quarters and even smaller cuts of fabric. Loosely gauge how many inches of bias vine you might need for your entire quilt. Add another 20 inches or so for good luck and then grab a couple pieces of fabric to get started.

Gathering the vine fabric

Scrappy is good, nothing to be scared of. And don't be confused by the amount of fabric pictured above. Remember, I'm making two BBII quilts, plus, options are fun! Definitely helps with keeping the auditioning momentum rolling along over here at Quilty Folk. And.... all of the extra just goes into my applique 'parts and pieces' totes.

So... To get started, cut your chosen vine fabrics so that they fit inside of your cutting mat--on the vertical length--up and down. If you have an 18" x 24" mat like the one pictured, your fabric needs to be cut to approximated 17 1/2". Shorter is fine if that's all there is left of a piece of fabric. Note: The fabric can extend longer than the 24" mat--however long the fabric is {42", 60" etc.}, absolutely no problem there.

If you have the much larger cutting mat, it's the same premise. Just ensure that the vertical measurement of your fabric fits inside of the very top and very bottom cutting lines, usually something like 23 1/2". 

Determining width of the Bias Vine:

Basically, the width of the bias vine is a personal choice. Just play with some folded fabrics or discarded bias bits and pieces until you find the best look for your quilt. Take that measurement and double it. Then add 1/4" to 3/8" for the seam and folded edges of your vine.

I wanted 7/8" bias vine which doubled is 1.75 + .375 = 2.125 or 2 1/8" for the cutting measurement. I always err on the larger size as wider bias vine tends to be my preference. Note: I could just as easily only added 1/4" extra and ended up with a 2" cutting measurement, probably the better choice as I later made a sewing adjustment anyway!

Making the first cut:  

Before you make your first cut, trim the fabric to the straight of the grain on the top and bottom of your fabric and also the left side. Lay the fabric on the cutting mat where ever, it doesn't need to be lined up with the grid. The important thing is to line the 45 degree line on your rotary ruler up with the bottom edge of your fabric--as straight as possible! Move the ruler over to where you will end up with about an 8" cut line on the diagonal. Cut that corner of fabric off. Discard or save for making applique leaves later.

Placing the ruler

Next, move the ruler over the larger piece of fabric until the right side of the ruler is exactly your cutting width, in my case 2 1/8". 

The first strip cut

Cut your first strip of bias vine and move it out of the way. {Don't be confused by the picture below, the fabric wasn't pressed super well, so the tip popped up after it was cut.} 

Careful placement of the ruler

Keep cutting strips in the desired width, continually lining up the ruler on the large piece of fabric. Important to keep the ruler very straight. You might even eventually have to take a cut just for the purposes of straightening the fabric, something that often happens when you use a very large or very long piece of fabric.

Keep going even around the corner at the top

When you are finished cutting strips from each fabric, you'll need to go back and trim the top left corner strips to the proper angle. You see where they will have a flat, squared off side to them? The easiest way to fix this, is to simply lay another strip right over the top and cut to the proper angle, no special ruler tricks needed.

Trimming the odd cut strips

If you are cutting from several different fabrics, you can sew together random strips and make a hodgepodge of your bias vines as to color order. Or perhaps line them up from lightest to darkest. It really depends on the individual quilt and what it might demand.

Getting strips ready for sewing

Okay, lets sew the bias strips together. Take two of them and make sure the angles will fit together correctly.

All lined up!

Lay them over the top of each other on the angle, right sides of fabric together and sew your seam. You will have tails at each end.

Sewing the angles together

Flip the seam open and make sure the strip edges line up. It's okay if they're a tiny bit off. {This will be hidden at the back of the bias vine.} Keep adding strips until you have a long row of bias vine sewn together. If you ever end up with two strips where the angles will not match up properly for sewing, just lay another strip over the top and cut the angle to the proper direction. This usually happens when you're trimming those strips with the squared off ends--they just get cut in the wrong angle direction, no biggie!

Do the strips match up well?

Fold the long row of strips in half at the width and line up for sewing underneath your sewing foot. Move the needle over to the far right if possible and then line up the fabric along the foot {or even possibly with the foot hanging partially off of the fabric.} Either way is fine, just do it one way or the other all along the fabric strip as you sew!

Placement of folded bias strips under the needle

When you are finished sewing the row, you should have one long tube of bias vine with a seam that is just barely catching the fabric at the right side.

The sewn bias vine tube

Take the tube of bias vine to your ironing station and carefully press it flat with the seam underneath. Use your fingers to carefully roll the fabric to where the seam continually ends up in the middle at the back of the bias vine.

Pressed flat

I don't know if you noticed, but I went back and sewed a second, slightly wider seam so as to change the width of my bias vine from 7/8" to 3/4", pictured below. It's very easy to start with a larger bias vine and make it smaller. Impossible to take a too-narrow vine and make it wider if you later change your mind!

The intended measurement!

I'm leaving town for a long weekend, but hopefully next week there will be time to prep one of my quilts for a bias vine that wraps clear around the corners. That way, I can show {those of you who are interested} how to place the vines so that you can still do all the stitching with the borders unattached to the larger part of the quilt. So much easier on our hands! 

This is the last phase of Bramble Blooms II so lets try to have this part finished up by early December. If we have a link-up party sometime before the 15th of December, then we can start the BBIII quilt in January. That will still leave time for enjoying the holidays. That is if I still have any followers left by then! I'm well aware that a three part quilt series is a whole lotta extra on top of our more cherished projects. No pressure whatsoever to continue onward. I will be doing this regardless!