Tuesday, October 09, 2007

How oh HOW?

I get stuck, absolutely stuck when it comes to borders. I HATE the measuring, measuring and measuring. Because I'm a nut, I rarely make a small quilt so I always have these long, long borders (well, they feel a million miles long to me). How do you get yourself to actually do what you hate? Often, I just make the quilt bigger and skip the borders but this particular quilt needs the borders to frame it. Plus, becuase I'm such a f-a-n-t-a-s-t-i-c quilter, I need the borders to square up and not lose the pattern once the quilting is finished. So........how do you do it! I read on other blogs..."I finished a few quilts this weekend or I just whipped this together yesterday"....and I see a finished top AND borders! I'm soooooo jealous! (Now I'm sure that part of the problem could be that ....well, I've heard that you actually need to go IN the sewing room to finish quilts! : ) ) I've been catching up on blog reading and see finish after finish. Again, the jealousy! I MUST get the borders on DD anniversary quilt and I'm totally stalling. Maybe today???????????

3 comments:

atet said...

Ouch -- I feel your pain when it comes to borders. I have the feeling I get mine on quickly because I ignore the "right" way to do it and get them on however they will go on!

Elaine Adair said...

Not sure if this will help, but I leave that quilt top, sans border, of the living room floor, right in the middle, so I actually MUST deal with it. If I pick it up -- bad news - it 'goes away.'

Then I do a lot of auditioning, and thinking and looking at partial blocks that might work, or maybe just plain borders, no blocks. It IS a pain to keep getting up and down from the floor to try one thing and another ...

A lot of times you can make a version of your main block, and use THAT for a border - maybe in darker colors, or lighter than the center. Or use the same structure, but leave out some portion of the seams.

Hope something helps you get on with it -- you're not alone!

Mary Johnson said...

I think we all procrastinate on the parts we don't like so much. Borders aren't my favorite but I don't allow myself to put a top away until the borders are on and then it goes into the to be quilted pile.

This week I'm allowing myself to procrastinate on 3 things - loading a quilt, finishing my July QFAH, and sewing the rows of a Chinese Coins together. I may get some of it done or not. Next week, I'll be back to cracking the whip!

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