Design Floor Friday - T x 3 {And Counting}

This week was devoted to working on T3.  It's a special quilt for a special person and I want it to turn out especially nice!

If you don't care to see the entire process... You may want to SKIP to the BOTTOM of the page NOW.  (You've been warned.)    :o))


Here's what the design floor looked like earlier this week:

Layout #1

The quilt layout needs an overhaul, but that's nothing unusual:

Layout #2

And yet another option:

Layout #3 (with only subtle differences from #2)

Unfortunately, it also needs be one-and-a-half shirts SMALLER!!!  I think that's going to require the shirts to be trimmed further AND will also require me to combine a few of the shirts (and leave some out completely.)  Not such a BIG deal, but it's a job that will have to wait for another day... even though "other days" are running short.

This is how T3 looked on Wednesday morning, being auditioned in its shrunken state:

The blocks have been set out on a quilt of the desired size.

HERE it is on Wednesday evening, on the design floor, freshly assembled:

Did you notice that it's turning a bit PURPLE???  It's not RSC sewing, but in a way... it is.  I'm using scraps AND the Rainbow Scrap Challenge Color of the Month!  I think that should mean BONUS POINTS... if Angela suddenly implemented a point system.  :P

In the photo above, the quilt is looking good, but it's STILL not big enough.  HOW does a quilter make a SQUARE quilt into a RECTANGLE?!?!?!


The next photo shows which direction I headed on Thursday afternoon:

Enjoy the lovely (sideways) shot of me auditioning sashing and cornerstones. (I took one WITHOUT the cornerstones, but that photo was too blurry to post.  Sorry! You'll just have to use you imagination.) 

Which brings us to FRIDAY.


I stared at the quilt and stared at the quilt.  I thought about flying geese or piano keys.  I thought about bordered squares, but finally settled on using bordered rectangles.  I believe that will be the perfect solution for the challenge of how to expand the now square quilt into a rectangular quilt.


Wish me luck!!


Oh, about that looming deadline...  Never fear!  The Joyful Quilter has found a way to make it work and will find a way to get it done... hopefully ON TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I give you the mock up of the "extension panels":

Yippee!!  Another sideways shot!  :P

 Here it is with the "extension panels" prepared for attachment to the body of the quilt:

Oh! That's going to look AWESOME. Now to apply the borders.

This side looks good:

Hey!!!  Did YOU forget to wish me luck???


Just LOOK what happened while I applied the "extension panels"!  SOMETHING went TERRIBLY WRONG!!  See the tell tale ripple:

It took some close inspection to figure out what I did wrong! Scroll back to the photo of the other side and then take another look at this side of the quilt.  Do you see it???

I broke the Quilter's Cardinal Rule!!


What's THAT, Joyful???


I began sewing the borders WITHOUT pinning.  NEVER a good idea!!!  Consequently, I got the "match points" off by a half inch.

Silly, Joyful!!  Somewhere between the design floor and the sewing machine, I forgot that the purple matched up to white... NOT more purple.  (Causing that unsightly ripple.)  :o((


So.  There you have it!  The design floor this week was SUPPOSED to have a completed quilt top for your viewing pleasure.  Alas, it has a rumpled mess that needs a border panel ripped off and reapplied....

A job for another day.  Or at least after dinner!!!  :P


OK... fortified by a good dinner and armed with my trusty seam ripper, I took out the offending seam and PINNED it in the correct position, then proceeded to sew it the RIGHT way this time!!  Bolstered by my success, I applied the final borders.

I present T3, ready for layering:

Until next time...
Match TWICE, sew ONCE!!!