Last night I finished up the bow tie border for my round robin project. As I mentioned before, I am trying to use up pieces I had cut for a previous quilt that never came to be.
This week, I used a stack of HST’s that had finished at five inches. Using these worked our really well. I was able to cut three 1.5 hst’s from each one (much much easier than sewing new ones!!!) plus all of the 1.5″ squares needed for the rest of the block.
Before attaching the border, I added two narrow borders which brought the center to 12.5″. Then I played around with the orientation of the 3.5″ bow tie blocks. I like the way they look when placed end to end. However, I couldn’t decide how to orient the corner blocks. This led me to using a plain square on the corners. Fortunately, I was able to unpick some uncut HST blocks and use the red portion for these corners.
I finally decided to use red squares at the corners. The solid fabric looks much better than the dots.
For this week, Wendy at Pieceful Thoughts has declared stars to be the choice of blocks for the next round. I am going to somehow fashion tiny stars within a mostly solid border. I need to calm this down a bit. I love the polka dots but if they continue to be heavily used, the quilt will be a bit chaotic for my taste. I also need to decide how big I want this to be. If I want a crib quilt, I need to grow it a bit with some larger spacing rows. Decisions, decisions…. Currently, it measures 18.5 inches square. So, I need to figure out the goal and work backwards from there!
Hope you are all enjoying this fun QAL. It is a surprise to me to see how many quilters are participating! Each quilter’s interpretation of the prompts is unique which makes it so cool to look through the link ups. I missed the link at Roseanne’s but will link this up elsewhere. See my favorites at the top of the page, under Link Ups.
the red border creates alot of energy. Looking forward to the next round.
Thank you! The red is so deep an saturated…. (hmmm, wonder if I should have prewashed it???)
I like the way the spools worked out, Bernie! I just realized i forgot to measure my quilt and note that in my post (facepalm). I think you’ll be able to use the stars well this week!
Haha – you and I are so much alike. While I did put the finished dimension, I misquoted it. Had to update the current size to 18.5″ So, best intentions but didn’t execute well. Face palm here as well.
That’s a really great way to cutup and use the HSTs; I love how the border feels a bit inside out. I hope you have fun working on this week’s border and look forward to seeing how it evolves for you.
Thank you! I am thinking of using 3.5″ wide strips of the darkest blue batik for this round and making just a few very small stars within it. I think that will calm the quilt down. I am not one for chaos and this will be headed that way with a lot more polka dots.
Your piece is looking lovely!
Thank you! Now I am off to work on some tiny stars!
I like the red in this border, and a great way to use up what you already have. I look forward to seeing how you use the stars.
Hallo Bernie,
first of all, thank you for your kind remarks to my SAHRR. Now I am able to see yours.
Red .. wonderfull color of power – but tricky if you really need to wash the quilt later. But it will work.
You have wonderfull products, color catching paper you can ad to the water.
And measurement… yes .. this is nothing for me as well.. as far there is no need to.
It will be good to have the stars on blue as you mentioned. I have to prewash this night my black fabric. Same complicated color like red…. but I am glad, that I found this fabric in my stash, because I knew I have this … but where?? So with this border no problem of how to do – more the problem of when to do… have a great week and much fun – enjoy the power of SAHRR !
Hi Bernie! Good job getting round 2 complete and in the books. Now you can turn your focus to some stars. I do love those polka dots but taming them is up to you! It’s your vision, my friend. I can’t wait to see where you go. {{Hugs}} ~smile~ Roseanne
This is awesome. The red corners add a little something extra. ☺
Wow, this is such a fun approach…I had to look twice to see that they were spools. I love the pattern it creates, so different. The corners are fun; you may even find a use for them with one of the prompts…you never know.
I really like your additions to your block so far! I started over and have chose a smaller orphan block, so I am going to try to catch up today. Enjoy the rest of your week!