Borders

With the centre of the quilt finished it was time for the borders.

Borders of the quilt

The pattern had three borders. The first was a cream border followed by a blue border. The final border was a blue and brown fabric.was a print fabric which in itself looked like another four borders. As I was not able to find a fabric that looked like the one used in the pattern I made up my own.

As I wanted to sew the borders on by hand I decided to use the same English piecing method I had used for the blocks. This meant cutting four 1 1/2 inch strips of  cardboard in length long enough for the sides of the quilt.

Cream & Blue strips 

The cardboard strips ready for the fabric to be tacked on.

With the cream and blue borders sewn on it was time to make my final border.

I was pleased to be able to find two pieces of fabric which I could cut into strips to make my own 'patterned border'. I cut the brown fabric into 2.5 inch strips making sure that the 'feathered' pattern was in the centre of each strip. I had to cut the blue fabric into two strips of different widths. The first was 2 1/2 inches and the second strip was 1 inch (allowing for the 1/4 inch seam allowances).

With so many pieces of fabric to be sewn together and the need for accuracy I decided to sew the strips by machine. This was not only more accurate but a lot easier on my hands and finger tips!

First of four borders sewn

Four borders ready to be sewn on the quilt

This final 5 1/4 inch border was also sewn onto the quilt top by machine. I did this mainly because I did not have enough lager pieces of cardboard to create the templates. I rarely sew my quilts on the machine however I did enjoy machine stitching this border and seeing the quilt top come together so quickly.

My first proper attempt at a mitred corner

With the three borders sewn it was time to mitre the corners of the final border. I usually avoid mitred corners as I have always thought they were too hard but in a quilt class last year I had a lesson in mitred corners so decided to put what I learnt into practice.

Backing fabric for Lachlan's quilt

Ready for the backing, batting and binding.

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Lachlan's quilt is now ready for the batting, binding and quilting. I am planning on hand quilting Lachlan's quilt. I am thinking about  shadow quilting around the coloured pieces on each block or possibly quilting around the cream triangles. I haven't really decided yet and will probably change my mind many times before I start

Charlie giving Lachlan's quilt is stamp of approval.

Lachlan's quilt 12 months on..

Oh dear.... I hadn't realised that I haven't updated Lachlan's quilt blog for over a year. Thankfully the quilt making hasn't been as slow as my blog updating!!!

Lachlan's quilt was my main hand stitching project during the year so it went everywhere with me. Most of it has been sewn in church on Sunday... yes in church during the sermon! Don't be too shocked - there is a reason I sew in church. Since my aneurysm 4 years ago I find it very hard to concentrate when listening to someone talk. I fall asleep which is not a good look in church or in a classroom! I found that by sewing I am able to concentrate on the sermon and stay awake. Not only is the quilt made with lots of love it has lots of God's blessings as well.

Since I have finished the top of Lachlan's quilt instead of showing you that now I will try and update on a few of the things I did and changed with the quilt along the way.

Instead of tacking all of the fabric onto the cardboard templates at the start, I selected six pieces of each of the blues and creams and sewed them into the blocks.

Once the first blocks were sewn I then selected another six pieces of each fabric but this time I needed to place a different cream fabric with the blue pieces. At this time I also sorted the final blue and cream fabrics into groups ensuring that each set of blocks had a different cream fabric.

Paisley block 1 with cream swirl pattern

Paisley block 2 with a different cream pattern

Finished blocks ready to be sewn together

Once the blocks were all sewn it was time to lay the quilt out and sew them together. the biggest challenge was making sure that I didn't place blocks with the same cream patterned fabric together. After a day of laying out and checking pieces I pinned the blocks into rows and started stitching them together.

One of things I changed with making my cardboard templates was to print them on the computer onto card. I traced the templates onto a piece of paper and then photocopied them onto a thick card. This saved so much time compared to drawing the templates onto greeting cards.

Sewing the blocks together was an easy process and with the blocks being 8 inches in diameter it didn't take long before the top was together.

Bag of used templates

As I sewed the quilt together I was able to remove the cardboard templates.  I have kept all of the templates in case I decide to use the same pattern again.

Sewing the edging pieces  

The cream edging pieces were the last pieces sewn onto the top. This gave the quilt a straight edge for the borders.