Snow Happens to be a Finished Top

Good morning, my friends. A new week begins. How's everyone doing? We're getting along here. It's so very cold outside. Some warmer weather would be nice. It's been dry, though, so even though we're whining, we're not complaining. Today is a stay-at-home day, but the rest of the week will be busy. We each have a medical appointment this week (just routine maintenance), and then we're meeting up with some friends to pass along a couple of mother and baby quilts. By Friday, we'll be staying home again. The weather this week looks clear, but there's a persistent snow prediction in the forecast for next week. We'll have to wait and see if it pans out. I'd like a little snow, even as I whine about the cold. 

It was a good sewing day yesterday. I've made more progress on the eighth block for Grandpa's Bridges.

With it this far along, I decided to move my hoop up to get the remainder of the tree and the roof line near the eves. I'll pick it up there this morning.

From there I took a walk on the treadmill and finished my one housekeeping chore. When I headed into the sewing room I found Smitty raring to go.

He's excited about finishing off this runner. He has his eye on that bird, and he'd like for the two of them to be furriends.

All the pieces were cut, and so it was all sewing, all the time on this. I first added a narrow blue border...

Followed by a white border.

From there, it was time to try out this new way of making the on-point border. It started with these strip sets...one of each blue.

These were cross-cut to 2-1/16 inch. I have just one ruler marked in 16ths of an inch, and so I used it. It seemed as if accuracy was important.

I needed ten of each color, although in the end, I only used nine of each.

They were first laid out in a row.

I was careful to press the seam allowances to the dark blue, and that allowed me to nest those seams when I sewed them together. I lined up the top seam of one with the bottom seam of the one to its right.

When they were sewn together, they looked like this.

For each of the four sides, I added corners to each end.

And then they were squared off at the ends and trimmed to size. The pattern emphasizes leaving a quarter-inch seam allowance. I left a half-inch around the outer edges. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure to cut off those points if I try sewing on a binding with just a quarter-inch to spare.

There were 13 strips in each of the long sides, 5 strips on the short sides. Corners were sewn at each end of all four sides.

When they were all sewn together, I laid them around the center panel like this.

And then I just sewed it all together. Easy peasy. It finishes at 30 x 17 inches. And, yes, that method of making those on-point borders was so much easier than the way I've done it in the past.

As an example, when I made this Poppy Mosaic...

Each one was made individually. 

To do this the new way, each center would be cut to the unfinished size, and then add about an inch of width to the strips on either side. Once they're sewn together, they're cut to size measuring from the tip of the diamond.

Okay, and so I had to choose a different backing. I don't know what I was thinking when I cut the first one, but it was cut way too narrow. And then I didn't have enough fabric without piecing it together. It made sense to just pick something else. I'll use the original backing fabric another time. This one appears on the front of the quilt as well.

So I'll put the snowmen aside to wait their turn under my quilting needle. Today I'll sandwich Joy in the Ordinary for quilting. When I posted its picture a few days ago, I chose the wrong picture without the outer border. It didn't seem right at the time, but here's how the quilt actually looks.

It's a small quilt, and so I'll do the quilting on my domestic machine. I know what I want to do in the borders, but I haven't decided how to quilt the blocks yet. I'll figure something out. It's hard to say if I can finish it in a single day...doubtful...but if so, I'll get the binding sewn on, and I'll be back to hand-stitching. 

So, okay...time to get to it. I hope you have a good week planned for yourself.