Monday, June 9, 2014

On My Design Wall

Good Monday morning to one and all :) hehe  Sorry, I'm still a little giddy about this. Once I have a little more time with her, you can bet I will write more.  For now, let's just say that the 1/4" foot is AWESOME and when used with the 1/4" presetting it has been DEAD ON :) These are things that make me smile :)

What's on my design wall? The backing for the strip quilt.  Here's a picture of the front:

This picture shows the colors truer than previously posted pics.
I think I am going to add another border. . . my concern is that this top is a bit wavy.  Not quite as wavy as it looks in the picture but the black border is wavy. . . so do I rip it off and start over or do I forge ahead with the outer border and hope for the best?  Really, I'm asking.  What would you do? I'm thinking I am going to regret not taking the borders off, but I have an overwhelming urge to just forge on ;)

Here's the back. . . I really think this back could be a quilt all by itself.  I LOVE it! It is not finished.  I will add borders wide enough to be big enough for the back out of the fabric that is between the square panels and the leaf panels.  WTH is she talking about???  This is what I'm talking about ;)

Love, Love, Love, how this is looking :)
The scrolly (new descriptive term) fabric will be the borders.  Here's the 'little' glitch with this one (and those of you who are very observant know exactly what you are going to see. . . )

See the difference in the width. . . I knew I should NOT have made that cut :( It's over a half inch off.  The cut is slanted starting from the scrolly fabric below the leaf panel to the scrolly fabric above the leaf fabric. . .
What's my fix going to be? The only thing I have come up with is to sew in a piece of the scrolly fabric to fill the angle.  I know it is going to be noticeable.  But I don't have any black fabric that comes even close to the black in the leaf fabric. If you have any suggestions, I'm listening ;)

Just keeping it real folks.  This one has plenty of issues to discuss... If I were going to do it over again, I would definitely use foundation for the strips for the top.  There's a lot of bias going on in that top and that is what I think caused my wavy border. Which makes me question if taking the borders off and resewing them is going to make any difference. . . Again, if you have thoughts or tips with this, please share :)

One more thing, Wednesday is my day to be a part of the 2014 New Blogger's Blog Hop being hosted by Beth over at Plum and June.  Get ready to check out all of the great new blogs out there! The group has been working hard to improve the appearance of the blogs and sharing all kinds of cool tips and tricks.  You'll notice several (ok, maybe a complete revamp!) changes to my blog.  All thanks to the techy things I have learned from the wonderful dialog going on behind the scenes.  A HUGE thank you to all of the great bloggers that are involved!  Get ready for a hopping Wednesday! :)

Linking up with Design Wall Mondays and Anything Goes Mondays. Check out what everyone else is doing!

Until Wednesday, keep on quilting!
Follow on Bloglovin 
follow us in feedly  



11 comments:

  1. Firstly, you have two quilts in one!!! And they are both GORGEOUS!!! Kudos to you.
    And then you are worried about a "wavy border"
    Focus on the sea of positives here rather than on the single drop of negative.
    Once it is quilted, it will be all PERFECT. I love them both already.
    Hugs to you :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. You'll have 2 in 1 quilt :-) I really have no suggestions for you on either of your issues, sorry. No experiences here on such matter. Congrats on your new machine!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I will suggest doing a more dense quilting motif in your border, to shrik it a bit. Also, spirals really work well for wavy fabrics.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm going to go against the majority and say take the wavy borders off, remeasure through the centers of the quilt, cut borders to those measurements and then resew them. I had a quilt that I had to remove 4borders on because the first border was cut wrong and make each successive border even more wavy. Dense quilting will draw it in somewhat, but if it were me, it would continue to bother me. The quilt (both sides) is so gorgeous it deserves the best. I have no suggestions for the back border fix. That's just my opinion, please feel free to ignore it :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Regarding the waviness, is it something a trim would fix? Love the backing - this is going to be a very striking quilt front and back!

    ReplyDelete
  6. You will have to decide if it is worth it to fix the borders or not. For the backing, could you make the scroll border wider on the bottom than the top? You would have to put an extra seam in to make that work.

    ReplyDelete
  7. So.... I think it depends on how wavy it is. If it is going to make pleats and creases when you quilt it... take it off. remeasure and re apply. If you can live with it, and you will be happy.... then leave it. I have done both ;-) It is quite beautiful by the way.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Beautiful colours!!! Me, I'd keep going if it wasn't too bad, but I'm so new to this, I really shouldn't even be saying what I'd do.

    ReplyDelete
  9. To remove or not to remove? It's hard to know just what to do...I can see it both ways. Measuring down the two centres (which I'm sure you did, knowing you) and then reapplying the border, or leaving it...and I have a suggestion for leaving it: you said you were putting on another border anyway, so measure down the centre as per usual, but if possible, cut that second border on the lengthwise grain, because fabric doesn't stretch nearly as much as on the crosswise. If you have to join the seams, join them with a 45 mitred angle, as the join is much less noticeable. This will definitely help to square it up and then fairly heavy quilting (scroll-y feathers maybe? would be beautiful). I had this issue on my Merry Cat-mas quilt, bc the fabric was not printed on grain!! It drove me crazy but I persevered and although it hangs with a little wave, I don't care, and I love it. It might also be the doweling that wasn't heavy enough as well. I'm going with that! The colours on this quilt are so rich, like the fabric; I just love this quilt. Oh! Thought of another tip: when (if) you sew the second border without removing the first, have the first border on the bottom, as your feed dogs will gently ease in the fullness better than if you have the wavy border on top! Good luck tomorrow! Maybe next year I can get in (organized) on the new blog hop!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Love them both and they sure could stand alone as quilt tops. Personally I think you would be happier to remove them as it will make the quilting easier. But should you choose to leave them Piano keys or Beadboard quilting will help take up some of the fullness.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wavy borders? AVOID THEM! Check it out, I ALWAYS figure what my quilt is SUPPOSED to measure based on the blOck sizes, THEN, cut yoyr borders that exact size but ALWAYS cut yoyr borders ALING THE SELVEDGE. I learned this tip a few years back and it has made my quilts sooooooo much niceer! Give it a try and see what you think...EITH THE SELVEDGE, not bias or along WOF !
    Let me know if you like this way.

    ReplyDelete

Comments make me smile :) Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment. Come back real soon!

If you left me a comment, I will be responding in kind either by email and/or by visiting your blog and commenting on your wonderful creation :)