Borders for Something Blue

My extra fabric for the Something Blue quilt came finally.  There was a  problem with the light blue I ordered for the skinny border, and I had to choose something else.  The fabric I ordered in place of my light blue raindrop fabric turned out to be too green, so booo, now what?  After auditioning numerous fabrics, I decided to use a strip of the backing fabric for this border.  What do you think?

The turquoise strip bring out more of the turquoise colors in the batiks of the quilt fabrics.  There's a good contrast too.  I love it!  This is the one!  Ok, back to the sewing machine I go!  There's lots to do if I want to have this done by the middle of September!

Whirligig is Finished!

There is a quilt show coming up in September, and I have been working to finish at least ONE quilt to enter in the show!  (At the quilt show 2 years ago, I entered 5 quilts!) I make a lot of quilts, but end up giving them all away! I will ask Aidan if I can borrow his quilt (Argyle) that I gave him last Christmas to put in the show.  I also gave a quilt to Drew (Asteroid), but won't ask him to send it up from Georgia. Too bad, that is a beautiful quilt too! I am working on Something Blue, but don't know if I can finish it in time.  The could be the Fan quilt to enter, if Dianne and I get it put together in time for me to quilt it. Sooooo!  Whirligig is my only entry so far! I finally finished it, and it turned out really really nice!

I quilted it with black thread.  This was, for me, a bold and risky color choice, as it WILL show --black thread against bright colors!  The backing fabric is black, so that looks great.  If there were any tension problems, you just can't see them!  I echoed the shapes of the whirligigs, but it's not a continuous line, so there was a lot of breaking of thread and knots.  I will do it differently next time. But it still looks ok.  Here it is:

How to Sew PARTIAL SEAMS

Here is the block I've called the "chained pinwheel."

The "frame" pieces in the Chained Pinwheel enclose the pinwheel in an offset way.  These need to be sewed with what is known as a "partial seam".

First, sew the Center Pinwheel entirely.

Next, sew the "frame strips", you'll need 4 of them.  You will be matching the squares which will form the chain links to the appropriate corner in the above pinwheel picture.

Next will you will sew the first strip to the pinwheel.  The first strip is only "partially sewed", thus the name "partial seam."  Match the colored square to the same colored triangle.  Sew until you are about 1 or 2 inches from the end of the pinwheel.  Backstitch to secure, cut the thread.  There will be a "flap" that you will be able to move out of the way later.

Rotate you block 90 degrees clockwise.  Align your second frame strip, matching the corner colors.  This strip will fit the block, sew the entire length as usual.

Rotate you block 90 degrees clockwise.  Align your third strip, matching the corner colors, sew the entire length.

Rotate you block 90 degrees clockwise.  Fold the "flap" from Frame strip 1 out of the way.  Align your 4th and last strip, matching the corner colors, sew the entire length.

Now you can go back and finish sewing the partial seam from the first strip.  Fold the flap back into place, align the edges.  In the seamline, find your sewing line and your backstitch.  Starting a little before that backstitch, about a half inch or so, do another backstitch to secure this new line of stitching, start sewing again, right over the first backstitch, and sew to the end of the strip. 

Voila!  Your block is complete, and beautiful no doubt!