Bordering a Quilt

When I set out to make this quilt I had no idea I was setting myself up for a challenge. Working with scraps can be a little difficult when you run out before you even begin to sew.

It became painfully obvious I would need another fabric for the solid border around the framed 9-patch blocks, but I didn’t realize I would also run out of extra squares to use on the alternating square border too. In order to figure out exactly how many I would need I did a physical count of each 2-inch section and came up with 136; 68 each of colored and plain muslin. The pattern called for 72 each, so I should have just saved the time and gone with that number, I just figured with my quilt missing four blocks it wouldn’t have as large of a border but apparently my bad math failed me again. Cursed numbers!

So I had 50 colored squares already, 10 of which were from sewn scraps, and needed 18 more. I ransacked my bag of selvages from the fabrics in the quilt and started piecing strips together onto 2¼” wide strips of muslin about the same length and started to sew them together using a zig-zag stitch creating a long strip from which to cut individual squares. I went this route rather than cutting individual 2¼” long pieces because, well, why not. Besides, the first 10 squares I pieced together were from excess pieces already cut that length, and if there were longer strips I would’ve gone that route to begin with.

Being the easily distracted being I am, I decided to start the solid border on the quilt rather than make more squares, and realized that piecing long strips isn’t nearly as difficult as I once thought it would be. Just have patience and go slow, two things I excel at ignoring. Much like when halfway through I had to refill the bobbin and wound it up and started sewing again only to have it stop on me an inch and a half in with the crappy problem I had before getting it serviced. Of course, tracing my steps I realized I didn’t lift the presser foot to release tension and that is what caused the problem, which means that was probably the problem the entire last few years now that I think about it. Oh well, the new bobbin case is much stronger than the old one anyway.

With the solid color border and another solid muslin border on, my quilt top is finally taking shape and looking more and more like the finished product I wanted. Now, if only I had the motivation to make more squares rather than make a bunch of stuff for my rather empty Etsy shop.