Laura Nownes

[Renata L.]

I am now at the point of adding the border to the sampler. However, I do not have anything appropriate in my stash for the 4 inch border. Maybe three inches..maybe. So, I'm wondering how I can calculate 'prairie points to see if the fabric I have left over can give me a praire point finish right after the first inside border ( mine is white, like Laura's) Or should I just put a wide-ish binding on the small white border? How about piano keys? Anything out there to tell me how to calculate these?

I will try once again to post a photo of the sampler, but haven't heard from Bob for a while, so maybe it's not going to happen.
I just tried twice and it's not happening. :?:

[Nancy R.]

Hi Terrie -

There are several ways to do Prairie Points, so calculating yardage would depend on the decisions you make up front. What size Prairie Points are you thinking about? Will the Prairie Points overlap? If so, by how much? Will you use one fabric or several? I would decide on the size of the Prairie Points first, then determine how much you want to overlap them, probably using the dimensions of the quilt to come up with a good number of points for each side. Once you make your decisions, you should be able to do the calculations. Let's say you decided to make Prairie Points there were 2" long on the long edge next to the quilt. For these, you would need a 2.5" square of fabric for each point. If you have 40" wide fabric, you could get 16 squares out of a 2.5" strip. If you needed 100 Prairie Points for your quilt and were making them all out of the same fabric, you would need (100 / 16) * 2.5" or 17.5" of fabric. Just remember to round up in the division.

For a piano key border, you again have to decide on the width of your keys and the width of the border. Since a piano key border would be out of several fabrics, you could add as many fabrics as you want to make the border the size you need.

Nancy

[Nancy R.]

I got my sampler blocks put together today. Here is what I have so far:

I put a narrow red border on it, then I'll add a wide black border. The black I used in the blocks is still out of stock and probably won't be in for a couple of months. I've got a Kona cotton black that would work, but I think I'm going to wait for a while to see if the black I want comes in. The Kona cotton looks fine, but I know it will bother me to not have the matching black so I'm going to give that a chance. I'm really happy with it and am already designing quilting motifs for the border in my head.

Nancy

[Nancy R.]

Nancy - I love it!

[Lotti D.]

Wow, nancy, it's absolutely fabulous!

[Marianne G.]

For a piano key border, you again have to decide on the width of your keys and the width of the border. Since a piano key border would be out of several fabrics, you could add as many fabrics as you want to make the border the size you need.

Nancy

Showing my complete ignorance here, could you please tell me what a "piano key" border is? TIA
Your quilt top is stunning! I 'm not surprised you are happy to wait a little while to see if you can get "the right" black fabric. sometimes a little patience makes you happier in the long run.

Marianne

[Marianne G.]

Nancy your top is amazing - I know that I would never chose that colourway, but I love it.

Marianne if you go here learn/all-boms the outside border is a swagged piano key border - for an ordinary piano key border, just have all the coloured strips the same length. And don't worry about questions - the only dumb ones are the ones you don't ask.

[Marianne G.]

Marianne if you go here learn/all-boms the outside border is a swagged piano key border - for an ordinary piano key border, just have all the coloured strips the same length. And don't worry about questions - the only dumb ones are the ones you don't ask.

Rosemary,
Thank you very much for the link! I see now why it is called a "piano key" border. I envisaged something black and white I like the way you can then use leftovers from the piecing in the border.

Marianne

[Rita C.]

Nancy your quilt looks terrific! You may as well wait for that black fabric to come in. It will give you time to get on with one of the other PHDs you have ...... or start a new one. :twisted:

[Nancy R.]

Nancy your quilt looks terrific! You may as well wait for that black fabric to come in. It will give you time to get on with one of the other PHDs you have ...... or start a new one. :twisted:

Of course, I started designing a new one and started pulling fabrics for a second. ops: ops: ops:

[Renata L.]

Nancy, your sampler quilt is amazing... and I think your border is going to be just as stunning. It's like a jewel!

[Lois B.]

Nancy,
I am loving your quilt. I would also wait for the black batik. It will be stunning.

This is making me eager to get mine together. In my tradition, to let others go first so I can learn from them, do you have any hints about dealing with the multiple layers of fabric coming together where the points on the edge of these blocks meet one another? How did you deal with those seams? I am chomping at the bit to get mine together, but I am taking full advantage of that eagerness to use it to as a bribe to get a more tedious job done first.

I made a GMFG quilt using Gyleen Fitzgerald's butterfly seams. It's a bed size quilt and those butterfly seams become more tedious when you are sewing long rows of those blocks together. I have 4 of 7 rows done and am part way through 5. 1,800 butterfly seams, but whose counting... I guess that would be me. Anyway, I posted the progress on Gyleen's Polygon Affair group on Facebook. She responded twice with some hints about handling the rows. I am always amazed and grateful at the generousity of quilter's willingness to help one another. I am taking a course in Houston from Pam Holland and she's responded to my email questions quite promptly a number of times. Quilters are such fine people. Not only do I love quilting, I love quilters.

[Nancy R.]

Hi Lois - I don't have any really good hints for the seams on this. Since I paper-pieced the blocks, it was a pain wrestling the blocks through the sewing machine as I put everything together. Fabric isn't fluid anymore once you connect it to paper, but I guess that's the point. :wink: I probably would have pressed the seams open if I wasn't worried about light-colored batting showing in the seams next to the black pieces. So I just pressed everything so that all of the intersections nestled together. I'm planning on using a double batting (wool on top of cotton) since this is what I want to experiment with now, so I expect my thick seams will sink into the wool. And my center is busy enough that if I can't stay in the ditch in those areas, it shouldn't be noticable. And everything feels so thin now that I've removed all of the paper! Once I have the final borders on, I'll double-check my intersections and could decide to repress then, clipping seam allowances if necessary. But for now, that's the way it is.

Nancy

[Lois B.]

Nancy, did you leave the paper in place until after the blocks were sewn together? I guess that would help manage the bias edges on the outside of the blocks. It's too late for me to do that. The paper is gone. Oh, well!!

[Nancy R.]

Nancy, did you leave the paper in place until after the blocks were sewn together? I guess that would help manage the bias edges on the outside of the blocks. It's too late for me to do that. The paper is gone. Oh, well!!

Hi Lois - I did leave the paper in place until they were all sewn together. It's a pain, but it does control the bias edges. And I waited until I got that first border, which is cut on the cross grain but I figured was pretty stable because it is a batik and doesn't stretch much, put in place. I normally try to cut borders on the lengthwise grain for more stability, but that would have meant having to order 1.3 yds of the fabric rather than using 3" of what I have. (Which I did think about doing because I'm completely addicted to fabric!! ops: )

Nancy