Border, bloom and boon

Did that title intrigue you?



One thing at a time.



I'm trying out a border for the red silk quilt. I have three borders around the central feather work. The first border is pumpkin seeds and micro stippling. The third border is a greek key. Between them, I had to leave two inches to get those two very structured, repeating borders to fit. Now, I have to find a way to fill that two inches, preferably with something that isn't very structured so I don't have to worry about resizing for the repeat.









The first one I tried is the twining rope border above. I did not really like it. I don't know why. It's a perfectly suitable border treatment. And, with the echo, it's two inches wide. But, I didn't like it. It would have to be marked very carefully to get the precision I'm after. You can see that it's wonky in these pictures and I'm not sure why. I'd have to work with the template a lot to get it figured out.







When I was looking at some of Diane Gaudynski's work, I saw a circular border on one of her quilts that was tiny, regularly sized and spaced feathers, placed evenly along a line. She used a line of pearls. Hopefully, the link will show you. But, I kept telling myself, that would take so much precision to reproduce and I'd never be able to do it without drawing every feather. I want this to be very free-hand to save time.






I knew I would need practice, so I pulled this little class practice piece out and marked it with three lines. I know that three lines are required for me to make feathers that are equally sized, but would I be able to get that kind of precision? I have to say that while my feathers are getting more precise, there is still a lot of variation in them. I could see that while I was quilting them in and I was having trouble convincing myself that i could pull this off. But, when I look at them on the whole, not looking at each individual one, they're actually not that bad. Pretty close to what I had in mind. add some echo work to fill in the two inches and I think they'll do nicely as a way to separate those borders with something that is different and at the same time just as nice as the quilt center and hopefully as striking as Diane's is.



But, it's going to take marking. First, I'll mark two lines that are a quarter inch apart down the center and I'll mark every quarter inch along that. That will give me quarter inch squares and I'll fill each one with a pearl. Then, I'll mark lines a half inch on either side of the pearls and I'll put the feathers in there, ending a feather on each circle so that each feather will be a quarter inch thick and a half inch long. I know. That sounds like a lot of marking. But, compared to marking each and every feather? it'll be a piece of cake.



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Bloom. Had to share this one. When Rob and I travel, we bring home Iris. I don't know why iris. It just works out that way. This iris is from our trip to Boston about 12 years ago. I think this is only the second bloom I've gotten from it. Just because we collect iris on our travels doesn't mean I know how to grow them. And, they're supposed to be so easy.



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Boon



I don't know about you guys, but I love old patterns. I've collected them from a bunch of places. The other day, when I was going through my patterns, I had to decide which ones I could legitimately make. I wanted to cut my patterns in half. So, I picked half of my christmas patterns to give away...kinda like ripping a band-aid off.




Clockwise from the upper right,



Crown Tree skirt/wall or table medallion quilt. this is two cute patterns in one package. One for a tree skirt and one for a wonky log cabin medallion quilt. Update the colors and this one would be cute to make.



Pocket quilts - okay, so it's not a holiday quilt. Not sure how it got in this picture. But, there it is. 6 Fun and Creative quilts with 3-D pockets.



The Magic of Christmas - an applique santa pattern by Shirley Gardner Designs. Really cute.



St. Nick Revisited is a set of patterns for making three santa dolls. Not quilts.



Jolly Jingle Bell Santa wallhanging. This is made from pieced santa blocks. Cute, cute.



Holiday Hospitality Wreath uses pineapple blocks to make a wreath wall hanging.

Rules: you can't pick. But, if you win things you don't want, you can re-gift...just as I'm regifting them now. Don't spread the word. This is for the readers that put up with my blather every day. All are welcome now that I know how to ship international. If you can, help with postage. If you don't specifically say you're interested in the patterns, I won't include you in the drawing...if there is even enough interest to have a drawing. That way, people can still comment without worrying they'll accidentally win.



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Okay, so that's it for today. I am not nervous about quilt class tomorrow. If I did the first part, and the background quilting part is going to be a piece of cake. That's what we're covering tomorrow...backgrounds, not cake. I am prepared. I have all my supplies. The world is my oyster.



Oh, and tomorrow, I'll be dropping off Linus quilts. That always makes me feel good.



Toodles. Lane