Bordering

I am trying to get a few more quilt tops done and ready to baste, at which point I will tie myself to the chair in front of the Q20 and quilt for a couple of weeks. Right now, I am putting on borders. The tumbler quilt got a 6” wide border:

I kicked around the idea of doing two borders, but there is so much going on in the center of that quilt, with so many different shades of blue, turquoise, and yellow, that I thought it best to stick to one border. This blue looks solid, but it’s actually a subtle blue polka dot pattern. I think it calms the quilt nicely.

The Big O block wallhanging is ready for its border. Cutting and attaching that is on the schedule for today:

This one is getting a narrow 3” border of the same Grunge that is in the sashing. I am so tickled with the way this came out, and it allowed me to scratch the itch of that weird color combination. I would like to do this same wallhanging in some retina-burning Tim Holtz fabric so I can switch them out for different seasons. Hopefully, that won’t take me another 10 years.

I took out all of my tops and almost-finished tops and measured each of them. One needs a border and several of them need backings. I don’t want to buy fabric unless I have accurate numbers with me, so those are now written down. I’ll check my stash of yardage, first, to see what I have that will work. I am not a fan of pieced backings made up of lots of smaller pieces, but I will cut and seam 44” wide fabric. And for the wallhanging, I may just use muslin or Kona.

My neighbor was very happy with the pillow shams and sent me a picture of them on the bed:

More commission jobs are finding their way to me, but I have to decide how much of that I want to do. I know I don’t want to go into the alterations business, but smaller custom projects are fun.

***************************************************

My father-in-law sent me a newspaper article about a quilt exhibition at the Museum of Fine Art in Boston. It is entitled “Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt Stories,” and it runs from now until early January 2022. On yesterday’s episode of the A Quilting Life podcast, Sherri interviewed the curator of that exhibit and showed some of the quilts that are on display. The curator, Jennifer Swope, said that they deliberately tried not to arrange the display in chronological order. Rather, the quilts are grouped according to theme. One of the highlights of the exhibit is that both extant Harriet Powers story quilts are on display together for the first time. (Watch that short PBS video if you haven’t yet heard of her—Harriet was a remarkable African-American quiltmaker born into slavery in the 19th century and those two quilts are absolutely amazing.) If you are in the northeast US and can travel to view the exhibit in person, it would be well worth your time (and I will be jealous).

***************************************************

PSA: Blog posts in November may be fewer and farther between due to my schedule, so don’t panic if you don’t hear from me. I’ll be back to regular posting after Thanksgiving.