Texas Teardrops Quilt Along ~ Adding the Borders

This is it...the final step in making the Texas Teardrop quilt!  I cannot believe my first quilt along is quickly coming to an end.  But don't worry, I might have a surprise or two up my sleeve for the future.

I want to start this lesson with a disclaimer...I do my borders different than most seasoned quilters.  In fact, some of you will probably gasp and quite possibly pass out.  What can I say?  I'm a rebel and I like to do things my own way.  Keep in mind you don't have to do it my way.  Do what works for you.  

I don't have a lot {any} pictures of this step.  Mostly because it's an easy step but mainly because I forgot to take pictures.  Oops.  If you have trouble you can email me or leave a comment.  But I'm pretty confident I can talk my way through this one.  

Remember...you need to trim the corner triangles before you add your borders.  You want the sides of your quilt to be nice and even.  If you had little pieces that stick out further than the rest of the quilt just use your ruler and trim them off.   

For each border I cut 8 strips the width of the fabric {refer to the pattern for exact sizes}.  I sewed the strips together in sets of two creating 4 very long strips of each color.  So, I had 4 long strips of turquoise and 4 long strips of white {one for each side of the quilt}.

Here's where I go rogue.  I do not ever measure my quilt and cut the borders to the exact size.  I sew the long strips to my quilt and then trim the excess.  Some quilters say this will create wavy borders.  I don't seem to have that problem.  I have issues when I try to cut the strips to the exact length.  So I don't.  

But please...do what works for you.  If measuring is the way you do things, then measure.  I'd rather you measure than hunt me down and beat me up because you have wavy borders.  

Starting with the turquoise I sewed on the left border then the right.  Then I trimmed the excess from each side.  Then I sewed the top border then the bottom.  Then I trimmed the excess from each side.  

Repeat for the final border.  That's all there is to it.  Your quilt top is now finished!  Woohoo.  I cannot wait to see all the pictures.  

I've had several people ask me if I have any  recommendations for quilting.  I'm actually in the process of loading my second Texas Teardrop quilt and hopefully I'll be starting the quilting soon.  I haven't completely decided on what I will do to it but I will definitely share pictures once I get started. 

I do want to share a couple pictures with you so you can see how I quilted the first one.  I did very basic quilting but I think it turned out pretty good.   

I quilted long wavy lines from top to bottom in between the teardrops.  I wanted to create a ribbon effect on this quilt.     

Here's a great tip...I use wavy lines when I quilt because I can't sew a straight line on my longarm.  Plus, I love the look of the wavy lines.  I didn't really quilt the teardrops very much.  If you look at the orange section {pictured above} I quilted a wavy line around the edges.  I also threw in some quilting on the white sections of teardrops. 

I kept with the wavy line theme and did the same thing in the side and corner triangles.

  

Hopefully you can see in the above picture that I did not quilt the little border.  I think I'm going to on the next one.  Just to try something new.  Overall, I love how I quilted this one but I want to try something new.  I want to put my quilting classes to the test and see what I can come up with for the next one.

Ok it's time to go get busy!  You all have until June 10th to get your tops finished up and get pictures loaded into the Flickr group.  If you can't upload a picture just let me know.  I can do it for you if you email me a picture of the completed top.  I don't want you to miss out on the prizes!

If you run into any trouble finishing up your quilt top just let me know.  You know where to find me...

Don't forget to check my entry into the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  I entered my Starburst Quilt and I even have the pattern ready and up for sale.  

Have a great Tuesday!        

Blogger's Quilt Festival ~ Starburst

It's that time of year again...Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted by Amy over at Amy's Creative Side.  

I love seeing all the quilts.  It really blows my mind that there are so many talented people in the quilting community.  If you are stopping by my blog for the first time, Welcome!  

I hope you will have a look around and maybe even come back sometime.  I love to share pictures of my quilts and I try to throw in a tutorial here and there.  Mostly I drive myself crazy trying to figure out what I'm doing.    

Last Fall I was lucky enough to win the Applique category with my Texas Teardrops quilt.  I was so shocked and honored.  I really never thought I would win.  I'm not sure I'll get that lucky again but it's always fun to try.  

This time I've decided to enter another quilt that I designed, Starburst.  I hope you love it as much as I do.  It's really turned out to be one my favorite quilts.

This design was born out of an idea I had to make a quilt using a asterisk symbol.  I tried to design a paper pieced block but had zero luck.  After several tries and a little brain power I came up with a design and figured out how to make it work.  

I have to say I really love how it turned out.  I love it more and more every time I look at it.  I wanted to do something special in the centers so I added little hexagons.  Who doesn't love hexagons?

I also thought I needed to spice it up a little so I added the row of colored blocks.  Then to make it even better I used the same concept on the back but swapped the colors. 

The white stripe lays directly behind the row of colored blocks.  It's hard to tell but the white fabric has tiny pink polka dots and the pink fabric has white polka dots.  

Here's a closer look at the quilting on the front of the quilt.  All the quilting is freehand. 

This was my first time using very intricate quilting on a quilt.  I don't usually quilt so heavily and so tiny.  But...I LOVE it.  I have to say I didn't really love it when I was doing it.  I had to count out loud as I was quilting so I didn't get confused and mess up.  It went something like this...1, 2, 3, 4.  1, 2, 3.  1, 2, 3, 4.  1, 2, 3.   

I sounded crazy but it worked.  I find that I have to stay very focused or my quilting goes haywire.  It only takes a split second for me to lose my train of thought so counting worked for me.  I think the quilting turned out pretty good considering I had no idea what I was going to do when I loaded this quilt.  I just grabbed the handles and this is what happened.  

It almost looks like I quilted little beads all over the quilt.  That was such a cool accident.  And who would have thought that the back would have such awesomeness.  Can you tell I love this one?  It really is my favorite quilt so far.  
        
Here's a closer look at the quilting on the back.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing my quilt.  I've been saving this one for awhile and it seemed like the perfect time to share.  I've actually had the pattern ready to share for a long time but I've been too chicken to do it.  So I think it's time I do that.  I've added the Starburst pattern to my Craftsy.com pattern store.  I hope you will check it out if you love it as much as I do. 

Starburst Quilt Stats

 

Finished Quilt Measure: 67.5″ x 81″
Special Techniques Used: English Paper Piecing used to make the center hexagons
Quilted By: Vicki Ruebel {Myself} on Roscoe {my Gammill}
Best Category: Favorite Throw Quilt

Thanks for stopping by...now go check out all the other awesome quilts!  

PS...Frugal Friday will be back next week.       

How About a Surprise....

Happy Thursday everyone.  It's been a little quiet around here lately.  It seems like I've been super busy but I feel like there hasn't been much blogging going on.  I'm working on a new quilt design and it seems to be consuming most of my time.  I'm hoping to finish it up today so I can move on.  My ADD is kicking in...I hate it when that happens.  

So I decided it's time to liven things up and have a little giveaway.  But...there's a catch.  I want your opinion.  What would you love to see more of around here?  Tutorials?  What kind of tutorials?  Product Reviews?  specific Products?  Pictures of my quilting?  Ideas on how I quilt my quilts?  I appreciate the feedback as it helps me figure out what I'm doing.  Sometimes {most of the time} I'm scratching my head trying to figure out what to share.  

I guess you all probably want to know what you can win.  It's summer around here so how about a Summersville Spring Charm Pack and a little bundle of Aurifil 40 wt thread. 

Just leave a comment and let me know what you think.  You can earn extra entries by tweeting the giveaway, sharing on facebook, sharing on your blog, i.e.  Just let me know what you did.  

The giveaway will be open until May 23rd at 11:59PM CST.  Good luck and I look forward to reading all the comments.

Have a great Thursday!    

Texas Teardrops Quilt Along ~ Constructing the Quilt Top

It's hard to believe but this quilt along is quickly coming to an end.  This has truly been an awesome experience for me and I have learned quite a bit along the way.  Hopefully, this will help my next quilt along be even better.  But don't panic...you still have plenty of time to finish up your quilt top and qualify for prizes.  

It's time to sew the blocks together.  This quilt is set on point which may be new to some of you.  I promise it's not difficult.  I've included a diagram in the pattern to help you with the layout.  Essentially you will be sewing diagonal rows together.  

You need to decide on the layout of your blocks before you sew any together.  I like to lay my blocks out on the floor {I don't have a design wall}.  This lets me move blocks around until I'm happy with the look.  Sometimes this takes me a minute because I'm a little crazy and I have trouble being random.   

Once you have your blocks arranged it's time to sew the rows together.  For this pattern, it's best to start with the center rows {rows 1 and 2 in the diagram on page 10 of your pattern}.  Sew the row 1 blocks together and then sew row 2 blocks together.  Sew row 1 to row 2.  Then add the corner triangles.

I folded my corner triangles in half and pressed a crease so that I could easily match the triangle to my rows.  See the picture below.

Then you will sew the blocks together for row 3.  Repeat for rows 4, 5, and 6.  Each of these rows will have a side or setting triangle at each end.  It's very easy to sew these triangles on wrong.  It really helps to lay the blocks out so you can visualize the layout.

You will sew rows 3 and 4 together and then add another corner triangle.  Do the same for rows 5 and 6.  Then all that's left is sewing these sections to the middle section.  

Please note...the corner triangles will be a little larger than necessary.  You will just need to use your ruler and trim off the excess after you sew the corner triangles to the rows.   I did this on purpose because it's easier to trim them down than to have triangles that are too small.

Here's a look at my newest Texas Teardrop quilt that I made with the wonderful Ladybug Garden fabrics by Riley Blake.

I was planning on having it quilted before this quilt along ends but I'm getting a little nervous.  I guess I better get it loaded so I can accomplish that!  

I think that just about covers everything for today.  I hope you all have a great day and let me know if there are any questions.

Don't forget to check out the Flickr group.  There are lots of great quilts emerging!  You can access the complete schedule for the quilt along here in case you've missed anything.