Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Made fabric for the borders of Birds

While I work on the last rosettes I am also stitching and basting the hexagons for the final border for my Birds in the Loft hexagon quilt. They will be "made fabric".  I've decided to work with assorted reds and a single pale butter yellow fabric. The first thing I need to do is make the pieces that will fit into the outside edge of the star and half & half rosette borders that will attach to the side sections of the quilt.


I start with two reds and one butter fabric. The stitch length on my machine was shortened and I sewed the reds to the yellow with a 1/4" seam allowance. All seam allowances were pressed toward the red.

A paper hexagon is placed on the wrong side and tacked position with Elmer's Washable School Glue Stick, I make sure that there is glue on the two points (in the red circles) are in the middle of the yellow strip to prevent shifting when I baste. I trim the fabric and then baste the hexagon as usual.

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These pieces will be stitched into the outer edge of the stars and half & half rosettes. On the inside edge that will attach to the side sections of the quilt I will stitch in the toasty oatmeal colour hexagons that were used along the edge of the quilt sections. In doing this I'll end up with two straight edges that can be easily stitched to the side quilt sections of the quilt. Before I do that however there are more red made fabric hexagons to be created for the red border.


I'll update my diagram of my quilt with colour in the next day or two so that you can see where I'm going with the border of the quilt!

Until I post again, happy sewing!
Karen H

9 comments:

  1. Beautiful! I love the stars! They really pop!

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  2. Another set of gorgeous rosettes! Great idea for made fabric. Question: Do you have any tips for turning those seam over and stitching? I would think they would be a little tricky. I'll just have to go and create one and see if there is a problem.

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    1. There are two tricks: 1) press the seam to embed the stitches before you press the red fabric away from the yellow and 2) leave a generous seam allowance. I like to leave about 3/8".

      I'll do a demo showing the best way to fold. With this particular hexagon there is no bulk at the corners and the basting is just like any other hexagon!

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  3. The way you create a hexagon, gorgeous. It is a nice end of the border. Since I read your blog, I see other ways to make a hexie. I like it very much and once i'll give it a try. Bedankt (Dutch fot thank you). Groetjes, Dientje.

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  4. you are really fantastic Karen!

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  5. That extra little slice of yellow, creates another line for your eye to follow!! How unique is that touch on the border!! It is always fun to come see what you are working with, and it did include a new idea. I must step up my designing now---want those little extra touches to make a special quilt

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