What's on My Design Wall 8-31-09

Here it is with the fabrics, instead of a mock-up. I'm liking it. I like the little bit of green, gives it a nice zing. I also made the outside border a bit narrower than was called for in the pattern. It was just too much with a wider outer border. This is a mystery quilt, and I've always avoided them, because you never know what you are going to get in the end. Because of how well I like this one, I may do another one (mystery that is) one day.

I went out yesterday and bought five pieces of fleece for backings. I've decided I really like the fleece. It's cuddly and warm. It may not be regulation for quilting, but there are no police here, and I've gotten good reviews on the fleece backs I've put on so far. I am much more likely to make tops into quilts when I use fleece. Since the idea of this whole thing is to have fun, and then share the fun by giving the quilts away, it works for me.

Border Selection

The border above is kind of what is called for in the pattern. It seems I am constitutionally unable to follow a pattern exactly.

However, when I looked at the first one, the print border just seemed too "there". I thought, perhaps with some of the blue (but I really like that narrow strip of green~oh, well keep that in then). I ended up with the border above and I like it lots. The inner green is going to be about 3/4" to 1" (I think it might need to be 3/4". The blue is about 2" and the print border about 3"-4". I'll need to play with the widths a bit, but I like the look...a lot.

Mystery Top

Here is the mystery quilt our guild is doing. I just finished the rows, they now have to be sewn together. Not too bad, but the focus fabric is a little "heavy" and it seems unbalanced with them all lined up like that. I think it will OK once the border fabric is on.

Update: the inner border fabric I chose at the beginning of the mystery is the solid blue, but looking at it now, I'm thinking maybe a yellow green. The outside border is the large print fabric, and I think the green will give it a zing!

Not Much

Not much up. Haven't sewn in a couple of days.I did sew on the top and bottom borders for the jelly beans quilt. I was looking for a fleece for the backing, and thought I found one at JoAnn. It was yellow and filthy, so I ended up not getting it. When I got home, I found the fleece for another quilt (a turquoise blue) and I think it will work for the jelly beans as well. I just was throwing stuff around, and I looked up later ans saw this. I think they look pretty good together.


I volunteered to do the guild newsletter, that's done for the month. I'm working on a website, got a bit more to do there. I've been reading blogs (that I can handle).

If you're interested, twiddletails is having a give-away for her 500th blog post. It's a pretty cool organizer. I imaging most of us have lots of little stuff that could go in there. Speaking of twiddletails. I just got the last batch of 9-patches that I swapped. Here they are on the design wall. I think I'll just use white sashing, and call it a day.

What's on my Design Wall...With Borders

Here it is with borders. The right and left are sewn on, the top and bottom not. I like it. What a happy quilt. Don't know who it's for yet, but I like it.

Check out other folks design walls on Judy's website.

Here's a Border Mock-Up

I like the inner white border. I think this is what I'll do.

Jelly Bean Top

Well, here is the top. None of the blocks are sewn together. I looked at the top on the wall, and it was OK, but when I looked at it through the camera, I liked it much better. The blocks are 6"x12" finished size, so the top as you see it is 4' wide by 5 1/2' long. I found the green/blue fabric when I shopped in Grand Junction yesterday, so I think it's going to be the border. I need to have some other color (maybe only an inch wide) around the blocks to frame them. I don't know what yet. My default is always black, but maybe white. Looking at the quilt top again, there are only 3 places where the green is on the outside, so maybe I'll just stick with the green. I do have all those 6 1/2" strips though. Hmmm, maybe something with them.