Some time ago, Ila sent me a UFO she was not happy with. I told her I’d finish it and donate it to a needy cause.
Kelli was at my house and she is the one that sewed the blocks together.
Kelli got the blocks sewn together, and it was my job to put the border on. Well, I only had some 2 1/2″ strips and small pieces leftover. Hmm. I ended up asking Ila if she had any extra background fabric. She did, and she sent it to me. THANKS ILA!! I cut some and got busy piecing the border.
Hmm. Houston, we have a problem. You can see that once the border was sewn on, it wouldn’t match or look right.
I was frustrated with myself that I didn’t realize that sooner. UGH. I kind of beat myself up for cutting into the fabric and not realizing it. UGH. So the UFO sat on the sewing room island. Every time I was at a machine piecing, I would think about that quilt. How can I fix it? I think the quilt would look best with points. There must be something I could do.
The colored fabric leftovers were only 2 1/2″ wide so that was the biggest obstacle. Hmm.
One day, I had an idea…add a white border before the border I already had…but how wide should that be? My match logic isn’t the best…I laid it out how I thought it would end up looking. I made a wild guess and thought I should cut the strips for the new inner border at 1″…there was a half inch sewing and I’d need a half inch for seam.
I found out the hard way, I was wrong. Let’s just say the seam ripper, and I got close.
The final answer on how wide I should cut the strips is 1 1/2″. HA!!
Here’s how it turned out…
I don’t mind that. I showed Kelli, as she knew I was having trouble with the borders. She liked it…I liked it…problem solved. But then Kelli mentioned that maybe I should add a small 1 1/2″ border of background around it. Then I won’t have trouble losing the points when I bind it. Great idea!
So here it is…a completed top.
Ila sent me some backing fabric, so now I need to piece a backing, and it will be ready for the longarm pile. Kalissa just asked me if I had a quilt for the park benefit in May. Hmm. This might be the one that I donate for that.
I feel so good about this quilt now. For a while, I was worried I wouldn’t come up with a good idea for it.
Great idea on the border – looks great! Yay!
Perfect for a May donation….spring time!!!
You are always so creative with your solutions. I like the way it turned out.
That was really clever Jo! Beautiful job! Margie \TN
That’s a great idea for the quilt border! It’s unique . I’ve never seen one quite like it and looks perfect on this quilt. Talk about making lemonade from a lemon!
I like how you solved that problem. It looks great! It will be fun to see it when you have it ready to donate.
It looks like a design element, not a “fix”. It would be a great quilt for a benefit.
Nice save, Jo! I like the look.
I like your solution to that – good job!! It looks like it was planned! (And no one needs to know anything different!)
I love how it turned out! Great thinking! Hugs,
Great finish – if I didn’t know better, I would never have known there had been a problem!
Love and prayers
I’ve been wondering how wide I should cut strips for a similar fix. Thank you for verifying my hunch of inch and a half. You’ve given me courage to jump in and work on that project today! You did a great job on your quilt. I hope mine turns out as well as yours did.
I fell in love with this quilt when you showed it awhile back. Your border additions are the perfect finish. Is there a pattern you can refer me to?
Thank you for sharing how you worked this quilt out. I think many of us learned from your process!
You and Kelli can solve hard problems by putting your heads together. It looks great! It should raise lots of money for the park.