Friday, October 19, 2018

Noah and Matilda 5E and "the big reveal"

I love the stripe in the stem on this one. It reminds me of Pippi Longstocking!

Now that I am nearing my Noah and Matilda “finish” I think it is time to reveal my border treatment. Because I am doing this in the potholder method I opted to not to the original “grapes” border. I think it would not have hung well as one straight individual border piece. I did want to keep the “circle” theme so I came up with a circle treatment that seemed to fit well. I had used this once before in a smaller quilt and really liked the results.                                  
 corner blocks


 border blocks 

Because I used the same backing on all the border blocks, I was able to baste them all on one background piece for easy quilting. Then I cut them apart and bound just the straight edges. I am going to do one long binding along the edge when they have been stitched together. This is a first for me so keep your fingers crossed!

The alternate blocks were going to be just plain, but when I laid them out I decided they needed a little extra boost. My blogging friend, Rose (Something Rose Made) had sent me this fabulous neon that fit the bill. Since I am calling this my “Ruby Anniversary Cake”, (we celebrated our 40th in July) these little neon interlocking circles reminded me of wedding rings – what could be more perfect? I used one of my favorite shirtings (designed byPam Buda for Marcus Fabrics) for the background and backing. I designed a simple “fleur de lis” quilting design around the circles. 

 This project has not been without its problems and “do overs”.

As I was trimming one of the corner blocks I did not realize that there were two blocks “under” the one I was trimming – ouch!! I must admit I haven’t done this for a long time, but stuff does happen… I dried my tears and decided I could salvage them by adding a little to the end. I matched it as best I could and called it “another life lesson”.

As I was about to trim and bind one of the alternate blocks, I noticed a small ink stain along the edge. ARGH! Maybe I can use a toothpick and bleach it out (after all it takes about 2 hours to quilt one of these puppies!). Hmmm, must be a very absorbent toothpick! ARGH! So, I made 31 alternate blocks instead of 30. At least I hadn’t bound it before I noticed it! 

These two blocks had to be made twice as well. This one because, well, I think it is self explanatory - ick!  
The Blob that ate Manhattan!
and the redo - much better! 

And this one I had to redo after I noticed the “read through” color of the backing fabric (click to enlarge the photo and you can see what I mean). It was a combination of the strong pink color on the backing fabric and the extra lightweight “antique” cotton shirting I used as a background. Of course, I didn’t notice it until it was completely quilted and bound! – ARGH! 
This pink is really strong!

So, with any luck I will finish the remaining blocks in the next few months and get this think stitched together before 2018 is over!

11 comments:

  1. admire your stick-toitiveness to do this right...how about a q-tip...that might quality as an absorbent toothpick...

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  2. You are so clever with the borders~ I can't wait to see it all pulled together.
    Oh how I felt your pain with cutting those hidden blocks :(
    Good Save.
    This is going to be a fabulous quilt for your Ruby Anniversary - love love those interlocked rings!!
    Sometimes the harder the quilts, the more special it becomes.

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  3. Nice work! As quilters we have to get creative when things don't go quite as planned.
    Congrats on 40 years!!

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  4. My goodness, Wendy, you are unstoppable! I think any one of the hiccups you have dealt with along the way would have left me with undryable (is that a word?) tears, and would have caused me to stuff the whole project in the closet and hope it would fix itself. You are creating another heirloom!
    (BTW, it was our 40th in June and it never occurred to me to mark the event with a lovely quilt. You rock!)

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  5. WOW! Just great... and I love how you remedied the oops problems! My kind of fix!
    It's going to be a gorgeous quilt perfect to celebrate your 40th! Congratulations for that milestone. (we are at 41...how'd it get to be THAT many years, I wonder??).
    I also am a huge fan of the Pam Buda backgrounds. I bought a bunch from Cyndi and just love them! Perfect in those blocks!

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  6. I love hearing the stories of your quilts. This one is going to be spectacular. I'm sorry too hear you had some blips along the way, but I guess that's life's stories and quilts too.

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  7. Looking forward to your border treatment! Wonderful fabrics in all your blocks. Funny how things turn out. You had some challenges along the way but with great solutions. There's no doubt in my mind that N & M will be stitched together by the end of the year :)

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  8. I am having trouble picturing how your border will look so will stay tuned to see the finished product. I have wondered about a full length border done in potholder style and how it would work. I can understand why you would be changing up the border to suit your potholder choice.

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  10. Thanks Wendy for sharing your progress. I'm going to put a link to this post on the Noah and Matilda FB page.
    Greta work!

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  11. Wendy I love your Noah and Matilda quilt~! I am very intrigued by the potholder method. Is there somewhere on your blog that you showed how to do it? Or can you direct me to somewhere to start?

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