Pondering Problems

You have to recognize you have a problem before you can solve it, right?  Right!  I often have to stop and figure out the source of the problem when I am clanging sour notes on the piano.  With quilting I usually recognize the problem right away so the only problem is how to fix it.

I got lots of feedback last week and I thank everyone who took time to respond.  I too like the feather border, but I also like the idea that a diamond border would repeat the design that will be in the internal border of the quilt.  The inner border can't be feathers because there is a narrow feather along the edge of that inner border (see below).  I planned to quilt this inner border with diamonds, because it would echo the sharp points of the colorful paper-pieced parts of the quilt.

Then I pondered some more and decided to create the diamond border digitally and overlay it on the photo as below:

Digital diamond border and backing folded over the outer border.

It  just doesn't speak to me.  Back to free motion thinking.  My readers like the feather and so do I.  So....here is my solution:  I will carry the internal grid all the way to the internal border, eliminating the feathers there.  Then I will do small feathers in all the borders.  I KNOW that will look nice and will integrate better with the rest of the quilting design.

TIP:  When a problem gets resolved and you feel good about it, it is probably right.  I'm feelin' good!

My quilt is all pinned and the sewing room cleaned up:  card table folded up, containers pulled out to retrieve items dropped down behind...and vacuumed, thread organized, ironing board cover clean, tools picked up and organized, etc.  Tomorrow I will start quilting.

TIP:  I don't know about you, but I find a clean, organized space is easier to work in.  It won't stay that way long, but mine was cleaned up within 30 minutes and this was a deeper cleaning than I had planned.  I just got inspired and it was quickly done.

I can't say I enjoy the pinning process, but it is necessary to secure the quilt sandwich until I have done all the stitching in the ditch.  So, here I go......

TIP:  Keep the excess bits of batting from depositing fibers all over the quilt by turning the backing edges to the front and pinning them down so that that all excess batting is enclosed.  This takes more time to pin, but it is nice not to have bits of fluff sticking to the front of the quilt and getting caught in the stitching.  (see photo above)

Sew a happy seam this week.  I wish you successful solutions this week.