Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Rainy season


The rainy season has officially begun so this seems a good time to work on the rainbow quilt.


The last time I worked on this was the beginning of November last year when all the blocks were assembled.


Several people suggested I add a white border around the blocks.

Since all the pieces are scrappy, I thought a plain white border might be a bit severe so I took out my buckle box of white print scraps and cut 46 one-by-six inch scraps.

Then I began sewing them along the edges of the rainbow flimsy.



I think it was a good suggestion.

I still have two more borders to finish and by then I need to come up with a plan for the outer border.

To be the right size, it needs to be about five inches all around.

This quilt will go to my #2 grandson, Ben.
He wanted something in purple and lime green but has agreed to take this one.

Over the last half year, my friends have been helping me by donating fabrics in those two colors. I probably have enough for a border but certainly it would have to be pieced. I was thinking about flying geese in a variety of purples and greens but as I am sewing these strips to the edge I am beginning to think all this piecing is getting to be too much.

Now I am wondering what it might be like to just sew all those assorted purples and greens together into one big piece and make that the backing, then find a nice print for the front border ... and maybe the back border if I don't have enough. That way it would be a reversible quilt and Ben could use it as he wishes. Among my donated fabrics I might have a stripe or striped print that would work.

I would have to have a plan that works with the purples and greens but I could use them in fairly large chunks so the sewing would go a lot faster than a few hundred wild geese. Does that sound like a workable alternative?  Any other ideas?  It's past my bedtime so I'm off to dream of a plan.

7 comments:

  1. This is a beautiful quilt! So much love and care are evident in the precise piecing and arrangement of scraps. I second your idea to do a back in big chunks of purple and green.

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  2. It's beautiful Julie. I agree with you about plain border. Hope you find right fabric for it.

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  3. Julie, this quilt is gorgeous, and the range of colors is so lovely ! We think the plain border is a wonderful idea, so it will not detract from the beautiful quilt pattern. We know that Ben would love to have the back done in big chunks of purple and green. Please let us know if you need us to send you some purple and green from our stash.
    Hugs and blessings, from Marina and Daryl

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  4. Great quilt. A colorful stripe would be great for the borders.

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  5. What a lovely rainbow quilt! Great job Julie.

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  6. Ohhh lucky Ben - what a gorgeous quilt. I agree with some of the others about the plain border. I love how those little white pieces look in the quilt - so clever.

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  7. I think I agree with the second plan, but of course that relies on finding the right fabric for the border. Good luck.

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