The Rest of the Story - DWM 3/10/14

Are you ready to hear the rest of the story about Scheherazade?  If you're new to the blog, you can read my earlier post HERE where I began the story of my plans for this really old Dinosaur UFO.

So.......Once Upon a Time.......

Well, okay, this is a long story and you may not want to read it all (LOL!!!), so let me begin at the end ..... here is Scheherazade, all finished!

It's straight - I promise!

I have to say I'm fairly happy with it, but not thrilled like I hoped to be.  It's certainly better than just slapping on a few plain borders.  But I'm pretty disappointed because my plans for this quilt's border design were an epic FAIL :(

I had all kinds of ideas flowing about ways to dress up this quilt, and spent hours drawing possible designs that fit in with the Arabian Nights theme.

I worked in EQ7 for hours trying to figure out how to make custom borders - still haven't figured that one out!  But I do have a few books on the way to help me in the future - LOL!!!

My main thought was to try to soften all those sharp edges in the Buzzsaw design in the center, and I wanted to pull that wonderful print into the outer border somehow.  But I had to figure out a way to get good separation of the pieces.  So, I pulled out Susan Cleveland's book, Piping Hot Curves......

I'll link this book and project up with Sharon Vrooman's Let's Book It party!!!

Susan came to our Guild in 2009 and taught several classes.  She is an amazing quilter and such a nice person - we all loved her!  The class I took was about inserting piping in the seams of curves to dress up a quilt design.

I loved the class and totally LOVED the effect of the piping to give that extra little ZING!  I even got a little button to "officially" state that I am a Piping Hottie LOL!!!

Blocks made in class in 2009

I got busy working on a corner design using the piping technique to give the pieces definition, and I have to say I was very happy with the design itself and how it turned out.

But I was totally disappointed in the way it looked on the quilt.  Here it is just pinned on to test it out.....

It just seems to make the quilt too fussy.  Too much going on.  And I ended up liking it better without all the fussy corners.  I'm sure glad I only made up the one!  I'm happy with the stepped side borders design that I ended up with, and I'm sure I'll be happy with this quilt for many years.  But I'm also pretty sure I'll always look at it and think about what could have been if I had been a little more seasoned as a designer!

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As for the rest of my design wall, I saw Lesley, the Cuddle Quilter, making some really cool hexie braids on her blog HERE and was immediately smitten - actually I think most of the blog world was just as smitten!  But when I checked out the price of that ruler I decided it would have to wait a while :O

Then I got a bright idea!  I have several sets of Marti Michell templates, and the Large and Small Hexagons have been sitting in my templates box for ages - never used.  I thought, why not try it?  So I pulled out some of my 2-1/2" strips, lined them up with the largest hexagon template, cut, sewed..... and quick as a wink I had Scrappy Braids!!!!

Aren't these cool???  Super, super easy!!!

And I didn't have to buy anything - I love it!!!

I think these will make a wonderful Leader/Ender project for a scrappy quilt, so I've cut up a bunch of them and set them by my machine.  This also means I can mark off my NewFO Challenge project for March - yoohoo!!!!

And the April Bertie BOM package arrived Saturday!

Don't you just LOVE those cute little bunny ears on Bertie?  

Bless her heart, she really does get into the holidays, doesn't she?   

I got totally sidetracked from the March Bertie and hadn't touched it in quite a while, so I thought it might be just as easy to work on them both together.

Yesterday I finished up the buttonhole stitching on both, and got the HSTs ready for applying to the borders.   The hand stitched embellishments are going to be fun on both of these :*)

So what's on your Design Wall?  

Share with us at Judy's Patchwork Times!
Also linking up with Freemotion's Tuesday Linky Party!

Have a lovely week!!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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The Beginning of the Story.....

Happy Friday everyone!!!!

I've been a very busy little girl in the quilting studio this past week, but unfortunately I still don't have a finished quilt to show you, but I am working on it!

Lori Kennedy at The Inbox Jaunt posted today about Essential Quilting Skills and the importance of continually growing our skills.  If you don't follow Lori, you might want to go over and check her out!  She shares amazing FMQ designs every week, and she is currently doing a fascinating series on the importance of a quilting notebook, how to organize and prioritize our UFO's, etc.  Very good stuff!!!!

My current project is a perfect example of finishing off a UFO and growing my skills in the process!

Scheherazade - without final borders

Meet Scheherazade!  This quilt was started at a Guild workshop way back in 2007.  We learned how to do the Buzzsaw block in the workshop and then went home with instructions for finishing up the rest of the blocks and putting together the center of the quilt, which I did at my very first retreat later that year :)

Since then, this poor top has been sitting on my UFO shelf, just waiting for me to give it some love!!!  All I really needed to do was add a few borders to give it enough size for a lap quilt, so I put this "quick and easy" project on my Guild UFO Challenge list.  And honestly, my only intention when I pulled it off the shelf was to slap on a couple of borders and call 'er done.....

Ah well....the best laid plans of mice and quilters often go awry, right?

I've loved these fabrics since I first laid eyes on them in my first year of quilting and stash acquisition.

Doesn't this just scream "Arabian Nights" to you?
It does me!!!

A local Hancocks Fabrics was going out of business and fabric was $2 a yard - whoohoo!!!!  I bought every last scrap of these fabrics - yep, ALL!!!  I think there were 8 yards of the above print - enough would be left over for the backing!  :)  And then these amazing coordinates - like FIRE!!!!

But I have to say, I was kind of surprised when I pulled this off the shelf to find that I still love these fabrics.  You know how time often has a way of separating us from our first fabric loves?  I've found myself saying, "what was I thinking!" more times than I can count!  But these vibrant fabrics still speak to me - they almost seem to have a life of their own.

So I suppose I shouldn't have been too terribly surprised when I found that ideas for more complicated borders kept popping into my head.  After all, I loved it enough in the beginning to actually MITER the first borders!  And for a timid newbie quilter, that's saying a lot, right?

Just look at that perfect miter :)  Nailed it!!!!

This quilt deserved something more than just slapping on plain borders, didn't it?  

I finally decided that yes, indeed, it did!

But that is just where this story starts..... come back for Design Wall Monday where I'll share the rest of this story about how I decided to polish up a few old skills and create the perfect finish for this lovely quilt - sneaky, huh?  Just like the original story of Scheherazade, you will have to come back to hear the finish...... go HERE to read the fascinating story about this legendary Persian Queen and her story of One Thousand and One Nights!

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And just so you don't think I've been a slave to the quilting studio this week, I share my progress On the Needles - my red House Targaryen socks!

This is a fun pattern to work!  It tended to twist a little on me, but I'm sure that will straighten up in the blocking process.  I was so excited to finally get to the point of working the heel on these!  I'm trying to work these both at the same time so I can be sure they are the same size when I'm done.  I love using the Two-at-a-time Magic Loop, but I just couldn't get it to work right for me with this pattern, so I went back to the dpn needles.

I don't think it will be long before I can enjoy wearing these wonderful RED socks :*D

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Now before I leave, let me steer you toward a great quilting event going on over at my friend Kevin's blog!  Kevin is hosting a challenge for the Quilts of Valor effort!  You can participate by making some of these really quick, fun blocks -

Photo courtesy of Kevin the Quilter

...........and maybe win a gift certificate!  

Go HERE to learn all about it!!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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