Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Spring Fling Round Robin: 1st border


I received the first quilt block for the Spring Fling Round Robin. I was paralyzed by fear as to what I should do with it! I don't want to mess up someone else's work! People might not realize this about me-- I can't really sew a straight line very well (I'll blame my crappy machine??), I'm disorganized, I know nothing about quilting, I rarely make anything that isn't only squares and rectangles, I rarely follow a pattern, and I don't really know much about lining up seams, the right way to press etc. I've been overwhelmed with the amazing results ofthe other quilters in the round robin. This challenge has really shown me how borders can enhance a block. I never knew! Please check out the website and see the fantastic transformations from "center block" to "center block plus 1st border." I came up with a lot of different ideas for the block in my sketch book but of course, I hadn't really read the directions and had not realized that I could only add a few inches to each side. Some of the designs I came up with couldn't have been done without adding 6 inches on EACH side, thus more than doubling the block size. I don't know what I was thinking. I stressed and stressed and then suddenly it came to me in the middle of the night: prarie points. Now, I've never done prarie points and they are usually added as a final border instead of binding to a quilt. I have seen them added to interior borders here and there so I decided to give it a try. I googled prarie points, read a few instructions and got right to it. I had no idea how it would look in the end but I'm very happy with the result. Of course, I never meant to add the pink border but somehow my math was off and I ended up an inch short all around. So I added the pink border fabric, which I think was the color inspiration for the original tulip blocks (see, pink, orange, yellow and purple!). Now I have to choose some fabric to send along, make a label and send it out. I'm relieved to be done and glad to have tried a new technique. Actually, when you are a self taught sewer/quilter, everything is pretty much a new technique!
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1 comment:

Nancy said...

I love the block with your new border. You did a great job. I am sitting here with books out looking for inspiration for my second border.