Design Wall Monday

Summer Solstice is still on the wall, but with the border units sewn together and anxiously waiting to be added to the rest of the quilt.

I was able to sneak in some quilting time, but I'm thinking I shouldn't have. You know what they say about working on something when you're tired or can't give it your full attention. Well, what they say is true. I made a mistake and now I have to fix it!

First of all, I decided that I wanted to make a little change. Do you notice the four dark triangles in the center of the border units? Well, in Judy Niemeyer's original design the fabric used is the same as the background for the New York Beauty blocks, or something very close. I decided that I didn't want it to blend so much and that I wanted to repeat one of the black fabrics from the center star. No problem, right? Wrong!! 

Check out the picture below. I REALLY don't like how the points of the triangle and the New York Beauty block don't line up. If I had used the original fabric it would have been fine, but since there is so much contrast I think it sticks out like a sore thumb. I'm so lucky I put this on the wall and took a look at it before sewing all the units together (notice the pins in the photo). I just wish I had sewn one and then looked at it instead of sewing all four. Live and learn, right?

It really won't be a difficult fix. I plan to increase the size of the triangle and re-draft where it is sewn to the adjoining piece. It will be a piece of cake to fix, as soon as I get it all unsewn. A date with the seam ripper. I can't wait! I think I'll do this while the embroidery machine is running a bit later today. I don't like to leave the room when I'm embroidering so it will give me something to do.

It's all fixed! Check it out here.

Even though it's really not on the design wall, I have two quilts that are ready to have the binding hand stitched down to the back. I like to have at least one hand project ready at all times in case I want to sit and watch a ballgame or something. :-)

The Pink Star quilt that I mentioned yesterday is on top and the other quilt is a Puzzle quilt that I made quite a while ago while I was at a retreat. When I pieced the backing, I knew that I didn't have a lot of wiggle room, but I figured it was ok since I was planning on quilting this on my home machine. Well, that never happened. As a matter of fact, this quilt has been at Kare's house waiting for me to quilt it, but I was afraid to do it because I knew that the pieced backing needed special attention and I really didn't know how to handle it. Well, I bit the bullet and quilted it. There are some not so great spots, but overall it didn't turn out too bad. I struggled a little bit to load and keep the backing and top aligned properly with each other, but I'm ok with the results. I'll post pictures of the front and back when the binding is complete.  

Check out what other quilters have on their design walls.
Go to Judy L's Patchwork Times.