oooo–I found one that you made @edel!
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Wow! @Edel That illusion quilt is STUNNING!!! It looks so classy. I love the colors and images you chose.
The monster quilt is awesome. I have so many yards of that fabric in my stash. I fell in love with it and used to make everything out of it. It really is versatile and neat.
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I purchased so many novelty prints that I just need to use up! I am thinking of using up some Hawaiian prints that I have been hoarding.
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@gozer, I’ve really considered joining the stamp sew-along. The only problem is that I’ve already decided on my summer projects and there just isn’t enough time to add the sew-along and I know I don’t have enough fabrics for the middle of the stamps. I’d rather take my time coming across the perfect fabric with this design in mind vs scrambling to get enough focal pieces in time. You know, now that I think about it, that was one of my favorite parts of working on the I-Spy quilts, looking for all the fun fabrics!
I do think I’ll follow your lead and pick up some of the edging fabric. One of the things I’ve learned over the years is that if you like the fabric, buy it while you can. What color did you go with? I’m thinking I’ll choose navy or maybe charcoal, though I do like the green for a Christmas version…
I love that first dinosaur block you’ve created! I’m looking forward to watching those Polaroids develop!
@Edel and @AIMR, those illusion quilts are great!
@marionberries, I like the pops of pink and purple in that quilt. The solids provide some relief from all the various prints.
@Mvanrh11, what a fun springy quilt! It will make for a very thoughtful gift!
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It’s been a year and I am now once again in a race to finish my niece’s quilt before her birthday. Her birthday isn’t until July, but LittleBookLover and I will be spending his summer break at our apartment out of town and I really want to finish the quilt before then. I plan on quilting the borders with my embroidery machine and am looking forward to using my larger machine. If all else fails though, I do have my smaller machine at the apartment and can finish it there.
Wish me the speed of @Edel and the focus of @MistressJennie!
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@AudiobookLover I got the navy. I figured it might be hard to find later too. I really love the mustard and the magenta best, but I thought navy would go with more and let the block stand out better.
A Christmas version would be awesome!
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I am so, SO ready to be finished with my niece’s quilt. Last year, after I sewed the borders on, and pressed all the seams, I laid it out to look at my handiwork, only to discover that the quilt would not lie flat and it had a wave in it that would cause a lot of trouble when I got to the quilting stage. I ended up seam ripping the borders off the quilt and decided that the small inner yellow border must have been the cause of the problem. I separated the two border colors and purchased a new fabric for the yellow border.
Last night, I resumed work on the quilt. I figured that since I had already cut the pink borders to size (plus, they’d been attached to the quilt, so of course they were the right size), they were good to go. Then I had the brilliant thought that I would sew the two borders together before sewing them to the quilt. It just felt more efficient 
. What I had forgotten was all the other times I’ve had this thought, but after thinking it through realized why it wouldn’t work. This time I didn’t think it through, I just started sewing. I then spent a decent amount of time pressing seams this morning to make sure that the borders would lay flat. I finally went to lay the borders next to my quilt, only to discover my mistake. The borders need to be attached to the quilt individually. Not only that, but for some reason the borders are coming up short on one side and slightly too long on the other 
. How they no longer fit since they were last on the quilt is beyond me.
I sat down to write this all out with the intent of saying I’m so over it, I’m just going to add a little length to the borders and leave it as is with the yellow running all the way from the top to the bottom, but as I gaze at my mess of a quilt right now, I realize I won’t do that.
Okay, apparently gazing sadly upon one’s quilt while documenting thoughts is kind of helpful - I decided that I was going to check and see if I had enough fabric to just make all new borders, but, during my quilt gazing just now, I realized that if I:
- Slightly extend out my top and bottom borders
- seam rip and trim the yellow on the side borders, just to where it will meet the top/bottom strips of yellow, then
- lengthen the pink on the top and bottom borders so that it will line up with the yellow border on the sides and then I should be able to salvage these borders.
It sounds confusing when I write it out, but I think it will work. I did notice that the interior of the quilt itself has a small manageable wave though and I’m really hoping that is not what caused the original problem wave. I just want to get these borders on and be done with the quilt top!
Ugh, apparently it’s not only confusing when I write it out. My brain “got it” a few minutes ago when thinking it through, but as I read through my plan just now I’m confused on how to make it work again . I’m going to go draw it out so that I can better understand this plan I came up with 
.
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I am new to quilting, so your post just scared the bejesus out of me, and I didn’t understand a word of it, but that being said - I love the fabrics you used! That guinea pig, the merkitty, and is that a unicorn in a rocket? All amazing, and I am sure your niece will be focused more on all the fun things than any “issues” your brain focuses on. Best of luck!
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I don’t quilt, but I totally identify with the “wait, I understood this two minutes ago why can’t I retrace that train of thought?” situation.
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Thank you! You’re right, the fun fabrics will definitely be the focus. Plus, her brothers each have an I-Spy quilt already and she genuinely appreciates handmade gifts, so I think she’ll just be thrilled to have her own quilt.
Don’t let the things I said scare you, just keep in mind for future references that borders go on one at a time, lol.
I’ve drawn it out (and it made such a difference to actually see what my end goal looks like) and looked at what I have to work with and I’ve decided to go with an approach right down the middle of the two approaches I was considering. I’ll sew new borders on the side and use the old side borders for the top and bottom. I think it’s the best of both worlds. I don’t need to remake all the borders, and I don’t need to worry about lengthening the borders I already have.
Okay, let’s see how much I can get done before it’s time to pick up LittleBookLover!
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Thank you! I couldn’t find it to illustrate what I was trying to describe to @gozer
@AudiobookLover it might be giving you grief but it’s going to be an awesome quilt.
@Mvanrh11 I love that quilt, the colours and design is just so summery
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You could also rip back the outer sides just a pinch, and use cornerstones of a different complimentary fabric.
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We keep this quilt on our couch all year round. It helped Mark heal during his first heart surgery.
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I just want to take a moment to let everyone know that I appreciate you all so much! This group is great for uplifting words, motivation, and helpful ideas.
Thank you, @MistressJennie for your cornerstone suggestion!
Though, unfortunately, more mistakes were made . I didn’t double check my mock up after sewing the top and bottom borders on, so I didn’t realize I needed the borders to extend out past the quilt top an extra inch to where they would meet the yellow from the side borders. So, I cut borders flush with the quilt top. When I went to lay the side borders next to the quilt, I realized my mistake as I now had a 1" gap next to where the cornerstone would go. I ended up adding an inch and a half strip to the cornerstones to compensate. I’m hoping that it won’t be very noticeable once it’s all quilted.
Regardless of mistakes, the quilt top is finally finished!! And yes, I can agree with the say that done is definitely better than perfect!
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Yay! I’m glad you got it fixed up!
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It’s only ever going to be noticeable if someone is looking with a super-critical quilt police lens. And they can bog-off to the juried collections.
It looks awesome and well rescued.
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This, plus it’s for a kid, right? Kids like quilts that are soft, warm and have fun prints. There’s not a kid in the world that will notice that little strip of added fabric when there’s ice cream fabric and dogs in sweaters.
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It’s basically noticeable as it is, when quilted you definitely won’t notice it.
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What strip? I just see a fun and colorful quilt made with love and kindness (and talent!)…great job…and the cornerstones were a fabulous suggestion…collaborative effort from this amazing group!
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I never would have noticed.
I love the cornerstones. The entire quilt looks amazing.
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