Folksy Flower Fun

From the start to completed quilt top, this one has already been in the works for 2 yrs! So glad I put it on the 17ufosin2017 list as that really pushed me to make some real progress. This one was easy to procrastinate on as I was always having the jitters over whether my off-point borders would have too much bias and ruin the entire outcome.

Folksy Flower Medallion is a finished quilt top!

They almost did! Using this sturdy black fabric on the outside border is going to be a lifesaver, I can already tell as it helps keep all the inside stretching issues fairly contained. As mentioned in my last post, there was a question over whether or not to continue on to another border. The more I looked at this quilt, the more it was prodding me to end in a grand finale of sorts. I played and played with the the lighter colors from the centerpiece plus other colors in the quilt and finally sat back and thought, 'Maybe if I just take off the black border, add on a wider one for better balance and perhaps add a bit of applique?'

Well, that led to me deciding that I definitely didn't like how the blue and black border looked fading into the black outside border, especially if it was to be wider and have more detail involved. So in my auditioning with fabric phase, I cut a couple small blue triangles and laid them on top of the corner black triangles, hoping to see what it would look like if I took that border apart and finished the repeat properly.

Looking at the borders before the blue triangles...

In trying to get them properly positioned, I sort of dropped them and they turned the wrong direction. Before picking them up, I realized it looked like they were poking out of that little border like little arrows, which instantly made me excited. Yes! Love how that makes the corner series of borders just a little more interesting, adding an extra sizzle of energy! From idea to actual implementation, the size of those triangles went up two or three seam sizes until finally I was happy with the way they presented. As you know, I'm a big fan of making quilty things larger.*wink

A simple addition

Just adding the triangles onto the inside border completely changed how I was viewing the outside border. Ditch the outside border applique idea! From those little blue triangles, it was a simple jump to deciding to sew together a filmstrip style border {loosely interpreted as such}, which would help pull those little black square elements from the center clear out to the outer border. I do so love finding interesting ways to repeat elements in a quilt.

Sewing on a skinny little border

From there it was a very tedious effort of measure, measure, measure, cut, sew, cut, pin, pin, pin, pin and sew some more. In order to make the filmstrip wrap around the corner, I had to sew on every length of the border individually rather than sew the three parts together and sew all-as-one {like I normally would for efficiency's sake!}. Ugghh... Bear in mind that the inside measurements of this quilt are not exactly in lock-step with the outside measurements. Yeah. Lets just say that this was equal parts creative math and keeping my fingers crossed it wouldn't end up in a giant, stretchy border mess!

Trying to make sure the squares wrap around the quilt
properly, adding a bit more of the lighter fabric on the corner...

Sigh.... Like I said earlier, the sturdy black cotton worked very well in keeping the outside border straight and true. Those little light colored strips were only 1" before seams so I'm not sure any of this would have been possible without the good quality of that particular piece of fabric! And so you can see, Folksy Flower was able to get a simple, but snazzy, outside border which better pulls the entire look of the quilt together. I adore how it pulls the eye right back to the center of the quilt {my very favorite part!} and also repeats the little squares element. While I do like the corner borders a lot, they were never supposed to be The. Focal. Point.

And it's a finally a finish!

As I've often said, there's really no 'right' way to design a quilt, no matter what people might unintentionally imply at times--there are simply preferences! Putting our in-the-works design efforts out on a blog {or in a group setting etc.} for input and comments can make us feel terribly insecure about moving ahead the way we want. But only if we let it! People are simply reacting to what they can see in our pictures and/or completed efforts, often trying to offer up a helpful viewpoint or idea, but too, they are only reacting based on their own experiences and preferences in mind. They can't process the instinctual feelings we're dealing with in the same way and more importantly, they aren't as invested in the outcome, which is always, at root, a very personal thing! Is this going to be a nice quilt--so lovely--or is it going to feel like a 'me' quilt?  You decide which ideas to take and incorporate or which to leave behind and that's that. At the end of the day, we have to be big enough to enjoy the conversation without feeling pressure to conform or perhaps we'll need to skip the agony of indecision posts and just post the final pictures. There! That's what I did, like it or lump it! Anyway, enough with the creative cheer-leading. I'm sure many of you get tired of my rants!

I almost forgot with all my focused border work the past few days, but it's time to link up to July 17ufosin2017 over at Pomegranate and Chintz! {Meredithe always has such good eye candy} and this linkup has been an excellent push for me to work through some stalled UFO's. Along with checking Folksy Flower off the list, I also made good progress with Vintage Coxcombs and also my Peachy Cameo Medallion. These three were just supposed to reach quilt top stage so not quite as much time involved a complete finish. Tho there was a true-blue-all-the-way-completed quilt in the month of July too!  Learning Curves finally bit the dust and is now crossed off the list as well. Yay for progress!

Also linking up with Linda and Julie for sew, stitch, snap, share #9! Do make time to check out Linda's beautiful quilt for some good summertime inspiration!

Blue Plumes

This applique was intended to be used alongside some wide coin sashing. That didn't work out and so I went in a totally different direction. Basically split that project into two and brought the blue applique into a lighter, more serene looking setting.

Blue Plumes getting sewn together into a quilt top

Some would say it's boring, but there's just something about the cream and blue, plus that blue/white ticking fabric that seems peaceful to me. After getting the initial foundation piece of the applique stitched onto each individual block, then I sewed sets of two rows together. This helped me to easier manipulate the long pieces of quilt as I hand stitched the 'plumes' onto the overlap areas. Saved me a lot of hand cramping if you want to know the truth of it! Once they were all stitched down, except for the top applique units, then I sewed all the rows together into one large quilt top.

At this point, it was time to determine the fabric for borders. Yes I know some of you most often vote for no borders, but this is my quilt. Most quilts around here end up with something extra on the outside edges. Once again I was drawn to that blue/white ticking fabric. Is it that old fashioned, vintage-like vibe? It makes me want to curl up with the quilt already and it's not even done!

Auditioning border fabrics

But it needed something more. I played around with options and finally determined that it needed a thin blue sashing. This peppered cotton isn't the exact perfect color, but I kinda like it anyway. It clashes just enough to give some much needed energy to the quilt. I do hate to be predictable, plus there was enough left without having to make a run to the quilt store. That decision always implies that there is something out there more perfect and 'making do' isn't good enough anymore. I hate that feeling. That making do has somehow become second class.

I had already took a dive into that shallow pool early on, broken one of my most steadfast rules. This is, quite seriously, the first quilt in a very long time where I had impulsively quite deliberately went and bought fabric specifically for a particular project. I mean a lot of it, like all the ticking and small floral fabric. Not that I'm judging what you do! And yeah, I do buy binding and border fabrics all the time, when absolutely needed, but rarely ever go buy a large chunk that helps make up the look of the entire quilt. It just makes me feel queasy. I much prefer piecing a bunch of smaller stuff together to try and make that scrappier look.

Normally, I buy {or have odd bits of fabric given to me} for the stash and then make directly from there, challenging myself to blend and use what is already loved. Around here, the stash is KING. The theory being this: I'm convinced that it helps me make more unique quilts. Also, I love the occasional odd result, which is what 'making do' often leads to! Making from what I have already acquired as 'fabulousness' or at the very least, 'interesting', will ensure that whatever is made will be appreciated down to each and every fabric included. That is the necessary connection to me--loving all the little bits and pieces, bringing them together into a brand new, hopefully more charming unit! Somehow though, this project seemed to demand a little more continuity than making from those random pieces of stash fabrics and honestly, I couldn't let the project go. No matter what. It was just too intriguing and different.

Considering sashing fabrics

Okay, sorry about the sidetrack. So then I was back at the question I've been mulling over and over in my mind. Do the top applique pieces need to be continued even if they extend over into the top border? For the entire time the stitching has been happening on this quilt, I've been convinced they would need to just like the other blue plume units.

Auditioning having the applique extend into the border...

Now I'm not so sure. It feels forced to me and makes the quilt look a little awkward. Maybe if I leave off the plumes on those top blocks and add a few plumes in the corners of the quilt? It's definitely something to think about while I fuss about with adding on the sashing and outside borders.

Or maybe doing something altogether different!

There is just enough of the blue/white ticking fabric for outside borders if I make them narrow, which is really all it needs. Just enough to tie back into the center of the quilt and make for a more cohesive looking quilt. This has turned out to be such a surprising departure from my usual quilting, such a quiet looking quilt. And it all started from a motif I saw on a piece of fabric. So interesting where we get the seeds of our inspiration!

Linking up with Linda and Julie at Sew, Stitch, Snap, Share #7! They asked an interesting question this week 'What's in a Name?'  We often wonder don't we? I first started blogging with my family back in 2006 and of course had to come up with a name for my blog. Everyone had these cute names that tied back in with their individual interests and personalities. They all knew I was the obsessed quilter lady in the family and so 'The Quilty Folk' was an obvious choice. Later on when I wanted to start a blog strictly for my quilting, it simply became 'Quilty Folk'. You can read my first Quilty blog post here. I obviously STILL like to talk and talk and talk about quilting. It seems pretty funny now, but I didn't start getting regular comments until two years in. Who says blogging is easy?

Be Still My Heart, I Have a New Lap Quilt

Another finish today! Apparently I'm in the mode. This little quilt somehow snuck it's way into the lineup and just demanded to be. I've long been a fan of Victoria Gertenbach's thread work, but knew I didn't have her artistic flare {go back further on her blog to see even more beautifully done hand work}. So then, when I saw Svetlana's simple, yet lovely quilt, it somehow became 'the quilt'.

Be Still, my new lap quilt

You know about these. The quilts that somehow light a fire of determination where you really didn't know there was enough intensity to even light a match in the first place? Yep. Off I went on my quest to find the perfect pepper cotton fabric. I love how supple the fabric is and how it shines in proper lighting. Also, I was already imagining a cheater way of making the quilt. How about a subtle print that would preclude me from having to mark for stitching lines? If this quilt was going to bully it's way into the lineup, then it certainly didn't need to monopolize all my precious quilting time for the next forever.*wink

Such lovely texture

With pepper cotton fabric apparently on its way out, Just found out it's still available online! I was very limited in color selection, but found myself delighted with the soft seafoam green I found. The backing fabric was a much tougher selection as I didn't want anything to detract from the simplicity of the entire [wholecloth} quilt look. I finally settled on a charcoal fabric with lines of indiscriminate black text. I actually love that the words are indecipherable.

Love, love, love looking at this quilt

Not having to mark my fabric made the hand quilting go very quickly. I ended up using nine different balls of #8 and #12 Perle Cotton thread, some variegated and others plain. The biggest struggle with the entire quilt was the fact that I was having to worry about the consistency of how the stitching was showing up on the backside of the quilt {the green side}, which in fact would eventually become the front side of the quilt. At least in my eyes!

Ooh, how annoying to realize that my normal pattern of stitching is more of a longish stitch {or two or three} and then a very small, little nod to the idea of a stitch. I think it's the long needle I use for the thicker Perle Cotton that makes my rocking motion a lot random that way. More taking out of stitching than I'd like to admit too, but it didn't really interfere with my excitement at seeing this quilt take shape. {And really, lets stop pretending that my stitching will ever be anything close to flawless or that I'd even want it that way if I could somehow convince my fingers to cooperate....}

A closer look at the print fabric backing

I also took extra time trying to find the 'perfect' binding fabric for this quilt. I knew I didn't want a red or other bright colored fabric, but did spend lots of time in my cream and then eventually, the yellow/gold fabric tote playing with possibilities. After a mostly disappointing search in most all of my fabric totes, I finally decided to look in the purple/lavender tote. Imagine my surprise when the fabric that jumped out at me was a brownish purple plaid? It had all the elements I was looking for, including a bit of lightness to subtly break up the long line of color on the outside of the quilt.

Indeed, I almost went for a cream binding initially, but just couldn't make myself be convinced the quilt looked the better for it! This mellow, toned down plaid somehow brings the entire quilt together in a way that I love and adore. It makes it unmistakably my quilt, which is quite a feat in such a simple, basic quilt! I mean seriously, how many components are there to quibble over? I remain amazed at how much every single quilt has to teach if we try to pay proper attention to what's it's trying to tell us.

Working on border blocks for two different quilts

My family pretty much thinks I went a little bonkers. 'Mom, it's so plain?' And it didn't help that I kept calling it my 'boring' quilt while chuckling like well, I actually was having real mental slippage. I'm sure at least a few of you understand how much fun I was having...

Saturday was more normal in terms of attitude towards my quilting--I had the gift of a very long day of piecing work, of which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was marvelous to play with the fabric and all the lovely colors, just chain stitching away and not having to think anything through. These will end up being the borders on two similar but different projects. I don't know why I'm working in pairs these days, but whatever works, right?

A Little Bit of Border Progress

Progress is being made on the Sunburst borders. I only have one more motif to sew on the second border and then I'm half done. 

Working on the borders

Repeats are always a good thing to be sewing on when there are distractions. After the second or third motif, they almost sew themselves.*wink  Just kidding. Actually, I discovered {or rather remembered} that the curved edges did not get clipped on the second border. Ahh... What a time to remember. For some reason, it totally spaced my mind before starting to stitch down the edges of my applique pieces!

Progress on Sunburst

However, when I lay the borders side by side or even in the proper arrangement with the rest of the quilt, I see no difference at all. How crazy is that? I'm sure it means that I'm a sloppy appliquer or something less than flattering, but I'm going with the 'how wonderful is that' attitude. Now I can skip that tedious little step {completely guilt free} for the 3rd and 4th borders as well. Thank goodness for that folksy applique look I love to appreciate!

A Scrappy Tulips Quilt Top Finish

I knuckled down and finally sewed the borders on to Scrappy Tulips. It's not like it was difficult per se, but getting into the quilt room lately has been a chore. Every spare minute finds me curled up on the couch wrestling with an altogether different quilt. All the other projects seem to be very back burner at the moment!

Adding on the last border

This quilt is one that I absolutely love and yet, I am concerned that the center blue just gets duller and duller the more color that gets added to the quilt. It's not quite as dull as the picture tries to make it out to be and so I cringe a little to show my pictures. But it is a problem. {Sort of.}

Scrappy Tulips

If I want to make it one. And I honestly don't. Because who cares if it's not exactly perfect? I've decided this one will be an 'As Is' quilt. Like a skirt we buy on clearance missing the jacket it supposedly came with. We don't care because we love it anyway, never saw the original jacket and so don't really know what we're missing. And as this all came directly from my scrap bin or my totes of fabric stash? Well, no extra money spent = proud frugal quilter bennies, right? lol 

I just have this vague idea that Scrappy Tulips could have been a magnificent quilt if only. Maybe some big stitching {later on} will add back in the little something I feel it's missing. And if not, I'm not too proud to finish it just the way it is. I look at what's been accomplished here and think, 'okay, it still has that make-do, scrappy, vintage-type look I'm trying to understand and get more comfortable with.' Everything is a journey. An opportunity to learn. I won't be making that magnificent quilt some day in the future if I'm not willing to make a few mistakes along the way to getting there.....

Measuring For a Coping Border When You Want to Make Pieced Borders Fit Properly

As you know, my Muddy Creek quilt has not been made from a formal pattern. The lack of pre-planned measuring can cause issues when working with pieced border units, forcing me to find creative solutions. One of the best solutions I've found (and used over and over through the years) is adding a coping border.

1. First you need to find some important measurements, starting with the top width of your quilt.

Top width of quilt

 Next will be the measurement for the middle width of the quilt.

Middle width of quilt

And last, measure for the bottom width of the quilt. Make sure your tape is taut and flat when taking all your measurements! You want them to be as accurate as possible. In this case, my three measurements are 27 1/4", 27 1/4", and 27 1/8". Now I need to find the average which means I have to add those three numbers together (27.25 + 27.25 + 27.125 = 81.625) and then divide by 3 (81.625 divided by 3 = 27.208). Rounding up in quilty language, I get the measurement of 27.25".

Bottom width of quilt

2. Repeat that process to get the vertical length of your quilt. This is especially important if your quilt is not square! Measure the length of the left side of the quilt, straight down the middle and also the length of the right side. The three vertical measurements for this quilt are as follows: 32", 31 7/8", and 32". In this particular instance, I don't even need to do the math to come up with an average of 32".

Vertical length of quilt

3. The best way for me to keep track of which number goes where, is to draw a picture. It's a magic diagram that clears away all the confusion and keeps things simple. Trust me and just do it. Draw a rough looking rectangle and mark the numbers where they belong. One number per direction plus some little arrows is really all it takes. From now on, the current quilt will be called the quilt centerpiece.

The magic diagram with a drawing of the
quilt centerpiece

4. Hopefully you've already figured out what you want your pieced border to look like. Most pieced borders are a set of 'repeats' or units that are exactly the same width. These basket blocks with the corner triangles added on are 8 1/2" each which will never sew onto my quilt properly without add-ons or chopping part of a block off. If I sew four of them together, I end up with a horizontal pieced border measurement of 34" plus seams (34 1/2"), definitely larger than the 27 1/4" width of my current quilt centerpiece (see previous magic diagram).

Horizontal pieced border units

Okay, this is where some decisions need to be made about the coping border. For this quilt, I could have easily added four basket blocks together for the vertical pieced border as well, since the quilt centerpiece is only 32" long (see previous magic diagram). But this would make my quilt square. I don't want that, so I'm going to go with five basket block repeats or 42 1/2" plus seams (43").

Vertical pieced border units

At this point you might want to do a quick mock-up on the wall with your quilt centerpiece, the potential coping border fabric and your pieced border. Do you like it? Now's the time to decide.

Auditioning pieced border with Muddy Creek quilt

5. Vertical Coping Borders are next in this crazy, long tutorial. Remember the magic diagram? Draw a rough outline of your pieced borders onto the paper, leaving plenty of room to draw in the lines for coping borders as well. Don't worry about how precise or in proportion things are--this is just for reference. Take the measurements from your horizontal and vertical pieced borders (refer to number 4) and mark it onto your magic diagram. Use little arrows to keep it all straight.

Adding pieced border measurements onto
magic diagram

Time for the math. Take the horizontal width of the pieced border and subtract the width of the quilt centerpiece (34 1/2" minus 27 1/4") OR 34.5 - 27.25 =7.25. Divide this number by 2. That number (7.25 divided by 2 = 3.625) is the measurement of the width of your Vertical Coping Borders. Don't forget to add the seam allowance onto that number as well (3.625 + .5 = 4.125 or 4 1/8"). Okay, that's the width, the hard part! Now for length.

So you don't totally have a panic attack trying to keep track of all these numbers, quickly look at your magic diagram for visual aid. Draw in your Vertical Coping Borders (pictured in orange). Aha! Now you can clearly see that your Vertical Coping Borders need to be 32", the length of the quilt centerpiece. Easy peasy.

Magic Diagram with Vertical Coping Borders

6. Cut out two strips of coping border fabric @ 4 1/8" x 32". Pin thoroughly, matching middle point to middle point and sew onto quilt centerpiece. Iron and measure. Your new quilt centerpiece should be exactly as wide as your horizontal pieced border but don't sew it on yet!

Quilt centerpiece with Vertical Coping Borders

7. Still with me? You're making excellent progress! Go ahead and draw in the lines for your Horizontal Coping Borders (pictured below in green).

Now lets do the math. Take the measurement of the vertical pieced border length (43") and subtract the length of the new quilt centerpiece (still 32"). 43 - 32 = 11. Divide this number by 2. That number is 5 1/2. Don't forget to add seam allowances. 5.5 + .5 = 6. That number is the width of your Horizontal Coping Border. Referring to the magic diagram should quickly remind you that the length of this coping strip will be the same as your horizontal pieced border (34 1/2").

Magic diagram with horizontal coping borders

8. Cut out two strips of coping border fabric @ 6" x 34 1/2". Pin thoroughly, matching middle point to middle point and sew onto quilt centerpiece. Iron and measure. The left and right sides (or the vertical length) of the quilt should now be 43", the exact same length as your vertical pieced borders!

Muddy Creek with all coping borders added

9. Sew vertical pieced borders onto each side of the quilt. Match middle point to middle point as usual and pin thoroughly before sewing.

Muddy Creek with vertical pieced borders added

10. Sew one more repeat or unit onto each end of the horizontal pieced borders. Sew them onto the rest of the quilt, matching points and pinning as usual.

Muddy Creek with borders!

Wallah! Now you have perfectly fitting pieced borders! Feel free to run around the room and do a victory dance.*wink  I have another tutorial about pieced borders that might be helpful as well. You might want to try this first on a smallish quilt, but if your numbers are correct, the size shouldn't ever be an issue. Really, it's just about formulas. Insert the numbers and see your ability to make personalized quilts increase dramatically! I dare you. lol

Muddy Creek Applique Blocks

My 4 1/2" applique blocks are all finished up for the next border of my Muddy Creek quilt! I stuck them up on the wall around the centerpiece and just started smiling. Oh yeah. I can totally see this happening.

Muddy Creek Applique blocks

Course I have to give them a little bit more space to breathe. Don't you think? It just looks to me like a bit of light colored fabric would do the trick. I'm fiddling around with a possible coping border and maybe some thin little strips of spacer fabric?

Checking out a layout plan...

Got a lot going on right now though, so I'm not sure when I'll find the proper time to proceed. So much book work sitting on my desk that I've finally succumbed to guilt and angst and well, something that smells a bit like depression. Hopefully I can burn through the necessary demands and get back to what I love best very quickly. If not, I'm sure I'll find ways to sneak in some quilting anyway.*wink  There is still 24 hours in each day?

Maybe I'm in a Pink Phase?

So I went pink with the Happy Flowers setting triangles. It seemed appropriate and very springy all at the same time. The Geese Tracks quilt had to come off the wall though in order to put Happy Flowers up. That was tough because I've been enjoying coming into my quilting room and taking a good look at it everyday.

Next up on the wall....

Some day I will have a larger design wall, but that's so far in the future I don't even stress over it. These flowers are just pure fun in their chunky old fashioned design and I'm wondering what will be next for them. Probably some sort of narrow border to enclose and 'pop' a color and then maybe another pieced border? I'm quite bemused by all my medallion style quilts going on right now. Don't ask me to explain the unexplainable. It just is.*wink

Happy Flowers

What I do find difficult these days is the fact that the RSS feeds are very slow to pick up on my posts lately. Other than Bloglovin', all the other feeds seem to take 6-8 hrs minimum to update. I'm not very computer savvy so although I've done tons of research on-line, I'm no closer to an answer than I was when this first started (a couple weeks ago). Anyone know what I can do about this? Is it a Google or Blogger thing? The only thing I've found to help is if I 'update' my blog a couple hours after I hit publish, but even that doesn't always work wonders. Good thing I'm not dependent upon my stats for a living!

Loving These Dresdens!

It's been crazy busy around here, but not so much on the quilting front. I guess all the Valentines Day stuff finally motivated me to start sewing the Dresdens on my Flowers and Flying geese border.

Flowers & Flying Geese border

I can totally see why people fall in love with Dresdens after working on these scrappy pink ones. Loving how this looks so far! Only three more borders to go, but it isn't going super fast for me. Probably because I went ahead and tacked the bottom of the Dresdens down to the border fabric. There's just too much stretch from the bias to cut the back out of the applique just yet and I need it nice and secure when I sew it to the main part of the quilt.

Flowers and Flying Geese Gets a Border

Too much time doing book work today. Sometimes it seems so unfair that I can't quilt all the time like I really want too. lol

Flowers and Flying Geese

I've been looking at my Flowers and Flying Geese quilt lately (the quilt I started 4th of July weekend), wondering what needs to happen next. I'm a firm believer in letting a quilt talk to me and express an opinion. Does that sound alarming or what? Anyway, there was plenty of red triangles leftover so I thought it would be great if I could include them in the quilt somewhere. Turns out they make a very nice framed border for the applique piece!

Looking a little closer

I dithered about and then finally settled on just sewing them onto the rest of the quilt and then chopping off the extra. Nothing about this quilt is perfect, so why try and pretend otherwise? I'm really happy with the way it's turned out, but now I'm leaning heavily towards adding a couple more borders. Yes I do love adding those borders onto my quilts! Oh well, you've probably figured out by now that I'm not scared of those tricky Medallion quilts. They seem to work well with the way my brain is wired...

Basket Medallion Border Work and Orphan Block Fun

I have the Flower Pot basket border almost ready to sew onto the Basket Medallion quilt now.  All four border units are sewn together and just basically waiting on me to make a decision about the fabric for the coping border.  Maybe another striped fabric?  While it's true that I don't want all my quilts to start looking like identical twins, I am actually considering using the same sashing fabric I used in this quilt.

Flower Pot basket blocks ready for border

It's hard to see in the pictures, but these mixed brown fabrics are really rich and dreamy looking compared to the paler yellows used in the quilt.  I was a little worried about how some of the fabrics would look up next to the reds, but it's all behaving very well together.*whew  Kind of makes me want a Hershey bar for afternoon snack though!

All 4 borders ready to go...

Then I got a bright idea about those leftover 9-patches that kept catching the corner of my eye every time I ironed something.  Good tip for the future:  Keep orphan blocks in a clear Ziploc just out of plain sight, but where you can still see tiny little glimpses of them. Very alluring with all that potential greatness!

A slight diversion of plans

I somehow went a bit crazy and ended up with way too many of these blocks back when I was working on this Material Obsession quilt.  Me and 9-patches?  Well, I don't think we quite know when to quit.

36 scrappy blocks of goodness

They quickly sewed together into a nice little stack of goodness which had me positively rubbing my hands in glee!  Amazing how fast blocks can go together when you don't have to bother with cutting fabric.  Then I had to dig around and find a good fabric to frame the blocks and make sure they didn't all mush together.  Maybe I'm getting too reliant on sashing lately?  There was a time I refused to have any whatsoever in my quilts....

Going together very fast!

Anyway, I want to reassure you that I haven't forgotten any the projects on my LIST.  Those of you who like to practice project monogomy and get irritated by all this hop, skip, jumping around, this is just a very slight diversion.  Nothing important at all.*wink

The Reverse Applique Detour

I guess I always tend to do things the most difficult way possible.  It was only after I sewed the basket panels together in my Vertical Basket Quilt that a light bulb went off in my head and started blinking madly at me.

Vertical Basket Quilt thinking.....

Hey, how about doing some of that reverse applique stuff and really trying to make this quilt special?  And the idea would NOT leave me along.  Deep V applique stitching is not exactly my best friend you know, so I was a bit nervous to just leap into the idea without thorough consideration.  Plus, wouldn't this have been waaaay easier before the panels were sewn to the strips?  Just saying....

Reverse Applique: Baste through both layers of fabric.

Yep.  Seriously weighing the pros and cons here, all the while busily basting the little bits of fabric to the back of some of the panels....

Reverse Applique: Back view of bottom layer of fabric
 with red basting stitch holding both layers together.

Hard to see the basting stitch, but okay!  Plenty of fabric to trim away after the stitching is completed!

Reverse Applique: Cut out top layer of fabric, leaving enough
fabric to turn under and stitch down (1/4" or even less).

I was cutting very, very slowly here because of the clipping oops I made on my last scrap attack quilt.  Looks pretty good, but I did try to trim it down just a little bit more so it was more like a 3/16" seam instead of a 1/4".

Reverse Applique: Clip seam allowance at the V-sections.
Shallow clip at side V's and deeper clip at top and bottom V's.

I think a shallow cut is more than sufficient at the sides and the bottom? Probably best to cut almost to where I want the fabric to fold over.  Only 4 clips in all since the sides are straight and don't need any clipping at all.

Reverse Applique: Turn seam under and stitch to
 fabric in back with simple applique stitch.

I really like needleturn applique so I just finger pressed the fabric over and stitched it down as I went (with a matching color of thread), trying to be really good and neat at the deep V's.  I think I probably need some more practice there, but the detail on the brown fabric is obviously going to be a great distraction from the actual stitching.  Oh yeah, I'm loving that part.  lol!

Reverse Applique: Remove red basting stitch.

Time to get that ugly red basting stitch off and out of the way!

Reverse Applique: Trim fabric in back to
within 1/4" of the new applique stitch.

And then its time to turn it over and trim off the excess fabric up to about 1/4" next to the new applique stitch.  Even that sort of looks pretty from the back.*wink

So you see?  This is why I never know at the beginning where my quilts are going to be taking me!  I'm usually only too willing to take a detour with just the slightest bits of provocation.  Glad it worked out this time or I would have been crying all over the new big cut-out right in the middle of my 'almost finished' quilt!  

It's a good day to link up to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching and check out what's happening over there.  Remind myself how sane and normal people approach the quilting dilemmas of life!