Friendship Stars in apricot
size: 37" x 48"
There were only 8 Friendship Stars that were "apricot" and while together they were long enough by themselves, they needed something to make the quilt wider. I added a narrow gold sashing and a very wide apricot border along the sides only. I loaded this quilt sideways ("railroading") so that I could quilt the two borders in one pass. I used plain muslin for the backing.
Originally, I had envisioned a much simpler design for the border, as seen on the left. I've always liked this design; it's cool. :-) BUT ... my make-shift templates are big plastic circles and to get the width I needed, the height of the circle template wouldn't fit at the top where the take-up roller is. ::sigh::
Plan B went into effect. Using the same plastic circle template, I made a three arc swag between the gold sashings. Inside the smallest arc, I did a tear drop shape with some curved lines at each side. I haven't a clue what to call it, but I needed *something* to quilt that space.
To keep the density of quilting on the border the same, I quilted straight lines from the largest arc to the raw edge. I think this is called "bead board". (maybe, perhaps) I was thinking to space these lines so that they were equally spaced between the points where the arcs hit the sashing ... but that was really too much math for me and probably would have been some obnoxious amount like 325/498ths of an inch between lines. So, I just used the edge of my Line Tamer tool as the spacing between the lines. The lines fell where they fell. :-)
I really, *really, REALLY like this border treatment. It was more work than my original design but I'm glad that I did it. I just need to remember to do it on some other quilt. :-)
The picture on the left was taken while the quilt was still on Lizzie. (I remain so pleased with my Lizzie. It holds tension nicely and produces a lovely stitch!) The stitching is just so clean and crisp.
And then I washed it. Let me preface this by saying that I always wash my fabric before using it (for a number of different reasons).
So when quilts wrinkle up like this after washing, it's got to be due to the batting shrinking. While this doesn't look "bad", it's not as pristine as when it's on the frame. I know it's going to shrink slightly but I'm always slightly disappointed when it does come out like this.
Some people like the 'old timey' look but I'd prefer just a little less wrinkles, please.
I used my all-time favorite, Carla's Swirl for Borders in the gold sashing.
The blocks had two different designs: a spiral line design in the Friendship Star itself and some loopy feather-things in the background.
Of the 5 quilts I did this January, this one is the one that pleases me the most. I like the colors and the quilting designs came out so nicely.
and then ... I had to laugh ... as I as in the process of taking down the quilt from the area where it was being photographed, I inadvertently hit the button to take the picture instead of the 'off' button. What I got was this kinda cool, slanted perspective view. :-)
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