I have five long-term UFOs on my list, all at the border stage. They are packed away in the cupboard and I don't think of them much, but they need to be dealt with. They are unfinished because the border decisions were just too HARD! Sometimes a quilt just goes together without a hitch, and sometimes it fights every inch of the way.
I pulled out this project from 2012;
it's taking up two large containers, because I packed away all the fabric I was using and all the fabric I was likely to use, plus the paperwork and photos. It took me a while to sort it all out and remember what I was aiming for. Thank heavens I put all my notes in with the top.
I spent hours cutting tiny strips to audition for the pieced borders; nothing was right. Every piece was either too brown, too pink, too blue, too light, too dark, too bright. This is why it's been marinating in a box for three years! On the plus side, now I have all these little strips that are just begging to be used together. Such lovely fabrics, but none of them are what the quilt needed.
Finally I've come up with a plan. The original quilt had multiple pieced borders, but I couldn't include them all or my quilt would be enormous.
I've sewn the missing corners onto the main part, made some mockups of the border piecing, worked out all the measurements.
I eliminated the dark hourglass border, and chose to use the HSTs and the squares on point, plus several spacer strips. Now it's time to square up the edges, add the first border and cut out several hundred squares and triangles.
It took most of a day to get this far, and it wasn't a lot of fun;
I made myself keep at it, because packing it away again would just mean a rerun of this day sometime in the future. I can see why people buy kits, with all the hard decisions made for them. But I will have a sense of achievement once I've battled all these design elements into submission. I really love the blocks and the fabrics and the memories of this special top, so the border is worth all the effort. It will be very sweet to cross this off the UFO list.
As hard and as time-consuming as it may have been I think the choices you made are perfect for this quilt. I especially like that you used the sashing fabric in the squares and triangles in the border. The quilt will be gorgeous! And you will feel great to have finished it, too.
ReplyDelete--Nancy. (ndmessier @ aol.com, joyforgrace.blogspot.com)
This quilt is going to be beautiful, she already is. You are just putting frosting on the cake. Blessings, Gretchen
ReplyDeleteI love how the borders look! I often go the easy route of plain borders but I love the look of your pieced ones...I'm inspired to put in the effort!
ReplyDeleteLots of work in them borders, but it will look fantastic. And you will feel fantastic.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lot of pieces and sewing involved in making this quilt. Oh how much I love the look. I think you are right on target with those border designs.
ReplyDeleteThat border is going to be the icing on the cake, for sure! Keep at it-- it's going to be beautiful!
ReplyDelete