Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Not so Top Secret Project Two Part 4

Whoo hoo - are you getting excited?


First step - Lay your quilt out and place a straight edge ruler along it. I trimmed those little flanges off so I had a straight line to apply the borders.
~
Second:
Measure the top. I measure thru the center and on both edges. Then I take an average of the three to get a length. I have been told that this will help you square up the quilt. But I have to be honest too... not many of my quilts come up *perfectly* square.
`
My Top measured 44 x 59.

I then went back to my 2 1/2 inch scrap bin and chose a creamy print to make a 2 1/2 inch stop border. I made 2 strips 2 1/2 in x 44 inches long. Applyed them and ironed. Then I measured the next direction. Mine was 64 inches long.


I made 2 2 1/2 inch by 64 inch strips and applyed those. I ironed again.I ended up using a pretty busy cream print. But I like it!









~
Now for the border choices. When I first drew this up I put solid borders on the quilt. But when I looked at my strip bin, I thought - wow - if I use those for a strippy border I wonder if I could empty the bin? So I did - and you may not like how it looks. You may wish to do a solid border. Either way - the quilt will be a perfect Quilt of Valor size.
~
Option One: A Solid Border. You will need Approximately 1 1/2 yards of fabric. You will measure the top again. Mine measures 48 x 64.
`
Cut 5 1/2 inch strips the width of the fabric and make 2 48 inch long borders. Apply those and remeasure. It should measure about 74 inches. Cut more 5 1/2 inch strips to make 2 74 inch long borders and apply. Your top is done! It should measure around 58 x 74!


Option Two: A Pieced Border:
I started grabbing 2 1/2 inch strips and sewing them together in sets of five. You can sew them in any amount of sets, 5 seemed to work well.
~
After I ironed the sets, I then took them to the cutting board and cut them 5 1/2 inches wide. For the Top Border my strip set ended up being 23 strips long. So I sewed enough sets together to make a long border of 23 strips. I then applyed it to the top and ironed it.
~
Remember - I am not always the best sew - er so I had a little overhang... this is where rulers become my best friend. I just trimmed it up to square again! I did the same thing for the Bottom Border.




After the top and bottom borders were done I re- measured the top - it was 74 inches long. So I made 2 Strip sets. Mine ended up being 35 strips long. Then I applyed those, ironed and trimmed it up. And here is the final picture of the quilt top.





I still have a few strips left - but my bin is getting low on 2 1/2 inch strips. And the cool thing to me is that other that the setting triangles this quilt is really a "free" quilt so far. All the strips came from trimmings of other quilts, or left overs of other projects.
My top was 58 x 74 when finished. I will be back with the backing preparations and more info for you. So don't stop now ;-)

3 comments:

Ann said...

This looks great! I'm going to have to make one for you. I just hope my completely random fabrics look almost as good as your red, white & blue!

Mary Johnson said...

The strip pieced border looks great ALycia!

Anonymous said...

Okay, Alycia, this looks SO good I am going to have to make a couple of them...one to keep and one to send to you!

I love the on-point setting and your borders really add to it!

Bari