Thursday 13 June 2013

Baby Fence Rail - Pt V

Well I think it is safe to say I have crossed the border with the Baby fence rail quilt top.

Baby fence rail quilt inner border

The first border finishes at two inches.  The pattern instructions are to make the border oversize (both width and length), sew it to the quilt and then trim it down to two and a quarter inches in width.  That's why I have the cutting mat and rotary cutter on the floor (mind the carpet!).  The eagle-eyed amongst you with notice that I added borders to the long sides first and then the shorter ones.  I feel that this makes for more pleasing proportions.

Baby fence rail quilt inner and outer borders

The outer border is made from the darker tone on tone leaf fabric.  The pattern instructions are to trim this down to four and a quarter inches so that when the quilt is bound in (yes you've guessed it) the yellow fabric four inches will be showing.  The effect of adding the darker petrel blue border quite startled me.  I don't think I've made the quilt top too gender specific by doing this?

My progress with project has ground to a halt this week because I have no suitable wadding [batting] or backing materials.

I bought 2.3 meters of plain green cotton which is not only the wrong colour but also slightly too little for the job [silly Mr G] and when I went to buy batting the shop didn't have enough of the cotton/poly blend I liked so much when I made the last quilt.

I am now on the look out for some cotton which is the rusty red colour of the little owls - unless someone can suggest a different (better) colour.

As for the green?  Well at the risk of ending up looking like a stout Robin Hood or a geriatric Peter Pan I may use it to make a shirt... ...or shorts... ...or something...

4 comments:

  1. It is looking fabulous! What about using the background color of the owl fabric? I can't tell if it is a gray or more of a light blue-ish? Good luck with the green - I vote for a green shirt!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Miss Sews-it-all
      I'm glad you like the quilt top. I did think about that background colour. It's a sort of light biscuity/parchment colour which I quite like.
      I will look around and see what I can find and you should keep your eyes peeled for a vivid arsenic green shirt in the not to distant future!
      Hugs
      G
      x

      Delete
  2. Your rail fence looks great! I'm kind of a newbie quilter and I've finished piecing a rail fence top and have sandwiched it all together. Now I've got to quilt it. I'm not any good at FMQ and since this is a gift I don't want to experiment with FMQ on it. My pattern is really the same as yours. How did you finish quilting it? It's been suggested I follow the rail 1/4" inside the stitching. That seems like a lot of turning the fabric back and forth multiple times. Just wondering what you did and what your suggestions might be. Great work! ~Diana~

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Diana
      Thank you for you kind compliments. You may be interested to learn that I have not yet quilted this quilt. I actually spent part of last evening finishing basting it with safety pins. The little recipient for this quilt arrived last Thursday night so I now how a reason to get on and finish. Since I started basting the quilt sandwich I have been asking myself all the questions you have and I have come up with very similar answers. I, like you, find the idea of FMQ very appealing but I, like you, am not yet ready to use a quilt top I have prepared as a gift for FMQ practice. I intend to straight line quilt this one and will be blogging my progress over the coming days. You are more than welcome to watch from the sidelines or quilt along informally.
      Best wishes
      G
      x

      Delete