Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Block of the month

One night while Karl and I sat in the living-room ~~ he was watching t.v. and I was bored ~~ I wrote up a list of what I wanted to do for block of the month. 
Jan -- snowman
Feb -- hearts
Mar -- shamrocks
Apr -- Easter rabbit
May -- spring flowers
June -- birdhouses
July -- in the garden, etc., etc.

Well, I started off well.  I did Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr and then I veered to the right.  May is not going to be what is listed.  I found the one I wanted and you have seen it.  Its a house from Angie's. 

June is going to be another one.  I found some English paper piecing, that I had no plans for and used those for flowers and the BOM will in called "Granny's Garden".  No, no previews.

July is going to be ...................in the garden.  I added a name to the beginning.  Misty in the Garden.  I found the pattern on Angie's.  It was a welcome sign for your home, but I've very slightly changed it to a BOM.  I like this one.  It will be fun to have it hanging for the month. 

On the last couple of wall hangings I've done something I enjoy doing once in awhile.  The piece has to "call" for it so that it works well.  I have no idea what you call this..................I did know at one time, but that dreaded disease called "can't remember anything" has kicked in and somewhere in the recesses of my mind the name is there.  Someday it may reappear to the front of my mind and I'll tell you.

What appears to be a very narrow inner border ~~ isn't.  Its fabric, cut in a narrow width, folded and then stitched down.  Here we go...............................

I didn't really know how wide I wanted my "flat fold frame" so I cut it 1 1/4" wide.

Cutting

Once it was cut I took it to the ironing board and folded it in half wrong sides together. You cut the framing exactly the same length as the block.

Measure to be sure

I laid my ruler along the edge at the 1/4" marking to see how much will show when the final sewing is done.  If I think its too wide I trim some of the excess off.  This time I trimmed some away as I thought the width was a bit much.

I pin, then using a basting stitch I sew the framing to the block so it won't shift when I do the final sewing.  I do one side at a time.  If I have to rip out the stitiching I don't want to do all four sides.  I do two opposite sides then the final two sides.  If I start with the top, I do the bottom next, then the two sides.
Sew with basting stitch

Once the framing is basted, I lay the border fabric on and pin and then using my walking foot I sew all the layers together using a 1/4" seam allowance.


Use a walking foot

This is what your block will look like after two borders are on

Two to go

And the final outcome!  This is called "Misty in the Garden." 


Borders are on

A final note, when doing this method of framing for a block, make sure and double check before you sew, that the framing raw edge is on the edge of the block and the folded edge faces inwards.  Nothing worse that being done to find one side is wrong.

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