Flag Day Quilting

Finally dove in the r/w/b stash. I only meant to finish this adorable Debbie Mumm panel.

Instead, I came out with 3 projects!
Decided the panel was so perfect alone that I only need add borders. Inner border has simple corner blocks with Debbie's starts (from panel surround) added in raw edge applique.
The outer border was really fun! I used my favorite Easy Dresden Ruler by Darlene Zimmerman to make 4" wedges for my round corner border; instructions here.

However, this time (because the 4" pieces were smaller and because I wanted lots of blue against the red corner blocks) I used 5 wedges on each corner point and gathered them to fit:

Well, I had so many wedges left over, I was able to make 4 Dresden Plate Flags.

Dresden Plate Flag by Road Home Quilting

So how should I finish these? 11" diameter Dresden plates. Please give me your ideas!

Lastly I salvaged a silk screened flag remnant someone had donated to my stash. But two of the red stripes had been cut off, so I wasn't sure what to do with the poor old thing. Finally decided it could work as two Flag Day Banners.

Finished with simple rolled seam. There are grommets at the top corners for hanging, and Velcro pockets on the bottom - to fill with trinkets (washers, rocks, anything heavy) so Banners will hang straight and not fly around. Will it work? I'll let you know on Flag Day tomorrow :)

This should have been the simplest of my 3 Flag Day projects but, you guessed it, turned out to be tricky splitting the stars. Have you noticed the way stars are tilted on our Flag? Well, thankfully there is enough blue between stars to get full seam allowances for both sides. But one side has single star points, and the other side finishes in double points! And hardest of all to figure out, the stripes only aligned well with the single point side. Here you can see on the double point side how I fudged the red line by growing the seam finish width:

I actually have a reason for ranting like this. The moral of this story is, please tell me, was 1/2 a day entirely too long to spend on a salvage project?

Pearl helps sort Dresden pieces

Notes on borders

 Done at last! Vacuuming and dusting await, although I have manged to keep up with dishes (thanks to Alex) and meals other than TV dinners. I'm going to call the game: success with hints of panic.

Our version of "Opposites Attract" by Cheryl Armstrong as seen in Fabric Trends for Quilters, Summer 2009, pgs. 74-78. The two outer borders are our addition.

There is only 1/2 yard of red in this quilt. Not enough of the provided white fabrics to make more log cabin blocks, hence the quadruple border to get it up to Mary's required size.

Is there such a thing as a border calculator? I could sure use one! The 2nd check border was Alex's recommendation, and a good one. But then I ran out of fabric on the 3rd black border, requiring the dot corner sets.

Here are some hints for adding big borders:

• Start with a tail. Don't match corners at the beginning of piecing. The tail gives you a "runway" so your border gets a clean start and isn't dragged into the throat plate by it's own weight.
• Raise the presser foot (needle down, of course) every time you stop to finger pin. I find that these little tension breaks keep my borders from stretching, curling and frustrating.

How do you like the round corner pieced border? It was SEW Easy! I will show you in tomorrow's post how it works. Do you think is was wrong to put round corners on a log cabin quilt? After all, log cabins are very square blocks. But this was not a traditional setting, so I went for it. Anyway, Pearl approves.

In the meantime...

We are still collecting photo illustrations and fact checking terminology for Part II: Finishing, of our first blog tutorial, Very Easy English Paper Piecing (see previous post). In the meantime, Grandma Mary will be glad to see some progress on her log cabin commission.

Mary requested, "something black and white with a little bit of red." Whenever I hear "a little red," I always think that is a good excuse for a log cabin. This pattern is offset, with larger right & top "logs," slightly smaller on the bottom & left.
Here is a hint I learned working on this project: After the third log is added, it is easier to piece log cabin from the back. Put the upside down block on top, so the new piece/log can be eased in against the feed dogs, and you can manage the 2 opposing seam allowances easier.
Flags of 42 Chain pieced log cabin centers. Does this count as quilt art? Yes, I am too easily amused.

Grandma Mary's Quilt

Grandma Mary wants Mom to make a quilt for her grandson's wedding. It is going to be black and white with a little bit of red.

Do you like this red fabric?

Grandma Mary sent this black and white fabric.

Mom wants to know if she put the fabric in the right grade order. What do you think?