I managed to get the neutral borders on, and all the red, but the whole math thing didn't quite work for me. My pieced border was too long by one whole HST. The worst part isn't that the border was too long, but that I have absolutely no idea where I went wrong. I used to be good at math. In the end (after much chewing) I just unsewed one HST and held it all taut as I ran the first sawtooth border through my machine because (after removing that one HST) it was then about 3/4" too short. I still have to add another three sides... I hope I have enough Hallowe'en kisses to get me through it all.
Oh, and the distracted part? There's always a distracted part, it's just that sometimes I haven't discovered it yet. That would be when I realized that by choosing to use only the blue HSTs in the border, I was going to have to make more of them. Yup, that's right. Double sewing the sashing sew-n-flip corners provided me with 144 blue HSTs and 144 brown HSTs. I need 162 (or is it 164?) blue HSTs to do the entire border. But as it is only 18 (or 20), it's not worth groaning over.
And looky here at what I got in the mail today. An autographed copy of Quilt Retro by Jenifer Dick. Hooray! I've been leafing through it and marveling at Jenifer's use of colour and shapes. There's even pages and pages and pages of step-by-step applique tutorials. Isn't that excellent timing?!
And this is the first pattern I'm going to make from it. Isn't it sweet?
I was thinking to make it as a food bowl mat for Lucas's corner of the kitchen floor. Then I thought it looked to cute to put on the floor under the cat food bowl, so I think I'll make it as a placemat for myself. If all goes well with the applique, it may be a whole set of placemats. Then there's the fried egg shape potholders... they are just too fun.
Sounds like you had some of the same trouble with your border that I had with my little Lori Smith pattern, and I still don't know where I went wrong with that, either. But I didn't do the math. I can usually follow directions, so how did I blow that one?
ReplyDeleteThe quilt looks really good in spite of your difficulty.
Very fun and funky placemat--but it would be perfect for the cat bowl. : )
I think we have all been there! Nothing wrong wit a little stretching of the borders (or blocks) to make them fit. I mean, who will know...?
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