borders | Simple Bird Applique

When I stitched the first border of Sue Garman’s “Friends of Baltimore”, I did what I do to all my blocks and borders. I washed the border. (I should mention that I pre-wash all of my fabrics in Synthrapol before I cut into them.) Something odd happened. For the very first time one of my red fabrics ran. Yikes! You can read more about that post here. If you remember, I Googled “what do I do when my fabrics run” and did exactly what I was told! I went to the store and purchased Oxi-Clean and some colour magnet sheets so I could re-wash the border and (hopefully!) remove the spots of red. The article I read also said to dry the fabric as soon as possible so, once the border was re-washed, I put it in the dryer and all was good. The red marks disappeared!

When I put the border on the paper pattern to trim it to the correct size, I noticed that the the appliques didn’t exactly match what was on the paper pattern. It looked like the area that was appliqued had shrunk in length. I know that a certain amount of shrinkage happens because of all the stitching. And the dryer would have caused a certain amount of shrinkage, also. Certainly not the end of the world! This is what I did to correct the (minor) problem…..

Just to give you an idea of how much shrinkage there was, the bud is supposed to be where my finger is. Just so you are not confused, you can only applique so far to the edge of the border, then the overlappping pieces can be glued and stitched in place once the corner block is added.

I moved the bud to where it was “supposed” to be. (Luckily, I had not stitched it in place yet!)

Next, I cut the bias stem. Notice I cut it under a piece of bias that crossed over it, so I could hide the join.

I just added a longer piece of bias.

Then I added a leaf to fill in the space. Looks good to me!

So once I shifted a few more pieces (and added 3 extra leaves) to fill in the space, the corner is finally complete!

I decided not to wash the corner block until it was part of the border. That way, I could also wash the pieces that overlapped the borders and the block. I filled the bathtub with just a few inches of water and placed the body of the quilt on the edge of the tub. I may not sound like it, but I was starting to get a little stressed!!

Once all the glue and starch was washed out, I pressed the water out and laid it out on a couple of thick towels to dry. All is good!

Til next time…

Kerry

Last Wednesday evening I finished stitching all I could on the first border of Sue Garman’s “Friends of Baltimore”. I filled the sink with hot soapy water and let the border soak for a while. I use hot water because I think the glue and starch soften quicker in hot water…maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t, but that is just what I do! Next, I like to use Soak in the water, but if I don’t have any Soak on hand, I use dish soap.

I normally let it soak for an hour or two. When I went to take the border out of the water, I was mildly shocked to see that most of the red fabrics had run into the white background. After doing a quick bit of research online, I jumped in the car and went shopping for some Oxy-Clean and some color magnet sheets. Luckily, I found them, came home and threw the border into the washing machine with both products. I am happy (and sooooo relieved) to tell you the border came out of the washing machine without a speck of red dye on it. Thank you, Quilting Gods!

The following day, I laid the border out on a towel and let it dry. Once it was dry, I placed the border onto the pattern and marked the cutting lines with a water soluble marker. I always cut my background pieces larger than the pattern calls for, so they need to trimmed to the correct size.

Next, I stitched the border on.

When I went to press the seam flat, I noticed that some of the navy blue fabric had frayed, and it was sticking out past the seam allowance. I very carefully trimmed off the navy blue bits. I mean….very, very carefully!

So here we are!

I promised myself once I had the first border stitched on, I would start the next block of Ladies of the Sea, another Sue Garman pattern. The ship on this block is called The Xebec Pirate Ship. It looks very interesting with that skull and crossbones! I used a gradient fabric for the bias stems.

If you look closely, you will see the color goes from light to dark green. Fun!

One day (when I have time!) I am going to do some research on cats and quilts. I had not seen Bruin all morning. I placed my quilt on the floor so I could take a picture of it. I went to find my camera and this is what I returned to find. Sheesh!