Midnight Clear BOM Borders

 This is the last week of our sew along. All we have to do is put the borders on, or if you are like me and wanted to wait, assemble the quilt center and put the borders on. 

 For assembling the quilt center I laid out my blocks how I wanted them to be, then you place a sashing section between each block. Make sure you watch which way those “ribbons” point in the sashing row, so they all go the same way and give the ribbon effect. 

After you have this done, we have to sew the first border on. For sewing borders I like to measure the sides of my quilt center and then cut my borders to size. Once they are cut I pin the centre’s and then again at one point between the end and the center on both sides. This helps me not stretch my borders or my top when attaching these. 

 

Once these are attached we need to make our corner squares, for these I used my Folded Corner Clipper again rather than drawing the line across. 

 

See how the points nicely line up and nest when attaching the corner square the the top and bottom borders. 

  

All that is left is to attach the final border. 

Here is my completed top. 

I chose a green Shannon Cuddle for the back of my quilt. Hopefully I can get it quilted and bound next week. Watch for the photo of it complete to be posted. 

Thanks for sewing along with me. I had so much fun working on this. I am already planning my next one, so watch out for that. 

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Sew Hometown: February

This month we are making 4 Birdhouse Blocks for our Sew Hometown Quilt. These blocks are very straight forward to make, and if you have a scrap bin if strips narrower than 2" you will be able to use a good amount of them.
You can go very coordinated with these blocks or super scrappy, whatever suits or fancy, or even a couple each way.
I chose coordinated and made the centers of each one of my birdhouses a solid color and than did a light and dark of two colors for each set of strips, choosing a third color for the roof and base of each birdhouse.
When adding the strips be sure to add to both sides and than top and bottom, in a courthouse steps fashion rather around the block like a typical log cabin.
Also be careful when pressing not to distort those fabrics, but still getting a nice crisp press.
I absolutely love my wool mat for this. The wool mat holds the heat from your iron (without getting too hot, so you can still use it on your table), so it is like pressing your block from both sides at once. I honestly would not press with out my wool mat anymore I love it so much. They come in a variety of sizes from small squares to a large mat that measures 22"x60". I love my monster mat, but aside from that one the Mega Mat which measure 14"x24" would be my preferred size. We do have the Mega Mat in stock and the smaller ones are on order and should be here around the end of the month.

Be sure to tag us, chickenfeedquilts, in your photos so we can see your blocks and tag Inspiring Stitches as well so they can see your progress too.

Kayla

Borders

SXLLM​​Tonight I have question for everyone. Do you cut your borders to the exact length and sew them to your quilt? If so do you pin them in place?  Or do you like to wing it, and trim the extra length afterwards. I admit I used to just make sure my border strip was longer than I needed, sew it on and trim it when I was done. I could not be bothered to spend the extra time measuring the quilt, measuring the border material, cutting and than pinning it in place, by the time I reached the borders I wanted to be done. The problem was I always ended up trimming a little more off of one side than the other and my quilts were not as square as they should have been, especially those with multiple borders. I never even attempted borders with fun set in corners or centers because I was certain they would not line up. 

MLXLS​​

 I have mended my ways. I now diligently measure and cut the borders to size before they are stitched on. I start with the center of both my quilt and border strip, and clip this in place. Than I work outwards clipping every 10 inches or so, if needed I will ease extra fabric in so I stay square. I say clip because I use wonder clips, have I ever said how much I love these things! They are amazing, I have over hundred of them and use them all the time, if you do not have any you should definitely give the wonder clips a try! Anyways back to the borders. When you are clipping or pinning the strip in place you can be a lot more confident that your quilt will finish nice and square, and surprisingly it does not take that much extra time. As an added bonus if you have someone else do the longarming for you, they will love your quilt! I speak from experience here, quilting a quilt on which the edges are the same length is a lot easier than one that is out a couple of inches. 

MXLLS​​

I can tell you with complete confidence that the last quilt I did would not have been square if I had not measured, cut to size, and pinned each strip. The quilt started with a panel that I added some blocks to and than after that is was border after border until it was the right size. The final border I decided use some extra blocks from the panel and put them in the corners knowing that the corners would line up neatly. If I had wung it I am sure that I would have one side at least 3 inches longer than the other. After all that's only half an inch additional each set of borders, it adds up quick. But it is exactly 101" on both sides and 96" on both top and bottom! Win!  

Now time for another question, if you were in the latter category at the beginning of this post will you jump over to the other side or keep going with winging it because it works for you? 

Esther has left on her trip, she is gone for a couple more weeks, which means there is lots more daily deals to come! Every day that we are open while she is gone we will post a new daily special on Facebook. The special is good for one day only and while supplies last, no rain checks. If you do not have Facebook feel free to call the store and ask what is. Don't ask about the upcoming ones though because we have no idea what they are. You can also place a phone order but it must be paid for by credit card at that time. 

I will be joining Esther next week and so there will be no blog posts Friday, November 17, Tuesday, November 21, and Friday, November 24. 

Also we will be closed tomorrow (Saturday, November 11) in honour of Remembrance Day. Have a great weekend everyone.

Kayla