I had some fun this afternoon at the local quilt shop picking out several pieces of fabric to finish some of the quilt tops I've been working on. I bought this nice brown cotton for the borders of the Pinwheel quilt. It was only $9.99 a meter, so I bought enough to cut the long borders on the lengthwise grain without needing to piece them. It's a very useable brown!
I cut the long borders at 85" as the quilt had measured 84 1/2". That would give me just a little margin. I marked the halfway point on the border and pinned it to the halfway point on the quilt. I smoothed out the rest and pinned it at intervals. Then I sat down to sew the border to the quilt, with the border underneath and the quilt top on top. That way I could see just where the points were.
I sewed the whole seam and, to my dismay, found it was 3/8" too short! It seemed like an awful lot of stitch ripping, so I loosened the first block and a half, and then I took hold of both sides and RIPPED THE SEAM OUT!!! Scary, but fast. It worked fairly well, except that several of the cross seams also ripped open about a 1/4".
I cut another border section of 4 1/2" width and this time 86" long. The strip was actually 105" long before I cut off the end.
I sat down at the machine and sewed this new border strip on. AND THE SAME THING HAPPENED!!! The blooming border was 3/8" short.
I should have given up at that point, but wasn't smart enough to do that. So I tried to work around it by taking out the last 15" of seam, cutting off the end piece of the border and sewing on a new, long piece. Most borders are pieced, eh? There finally was enough material to reach the end and then some.
But when I turned it over the truth of the "shrinking border fabric" became evident. THE WHOLE BORDER WRINKLES ALONG THE EDGE OF THE QUILT. The sad truth is that I now need to take my stitch ripper, sit down and take the whole seam out, stitch by stitch. OUCH!!!
I think I need to do a little repair on that stressed out edge of the quilt, and then carefully pin the border in place and attach it, but this time let the border be on top and the quilt underneath.
I think I'll leave that for tomorrow. I've had enough for today! The good part: I have oodles and oodles of border fabric.
I cut the long borders at 85" as the quilt had measured 84 1/2". That would give me just a little margin. I marked the halfway point on the border and pinned it to the halfway point on the quilt. I smoothed out the rest and pinned it at intervals. Then I sat down to sew the border to the quilt, with the border underneath and the quilt top on top. That way I could see just where the points were.
I sewed the whole seam and, to my dismay, found it was 3/8" too short! It seemed like an awful lot of stitch ripping, so I loosened the first block and a half, and then I took hold of both sides and RIPPED THE SEAM OUT!!! Scary, but fast. It worked fairly well, except that several of the cross seams also ripped open about a 1/4".
I cut another border section of 4 1/2" width and this time 86" long. The strip was actually 105" long before I cut off the end.
I sat down at the machine and sewed this new border strip on. AND THE SAME THING HAPPENED!!! The blooming border was 3/8" short.
I should have given up at that point, but wasn't smart enough to do that. So I tried to work around it by taking out the last 15" of seam, cutting off the end piece of the border and sewing on a new, long piece. Most borders are pieced, eh? There finally was enough material to reach the end and then some.
But when I turned it over the truth of the "shrinking border fabric" became evident. THE WHOLE BORDER WRINKLES ALONG THE EDGE OF THE QUILT. The sad truth is that I now need to take my stitch ripper, sit down and take the whole seam out, stitch by stitch. OUCH!!!
I think I need to do a little repair on that stressed out edge of the quilt, and then carefully pin the border in place and attach it, but this time let the border be on top and the quilt underneath.
I think I'll leave that for tomorrow. I've had enough for today! The good part: I have oodles and oodles of border fabric.
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