Medallion: Arrows and Orange


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I’ve added two more borders to my medallion quilt .

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I made twelve paper pieced arrows for border #8.  The measurements worked out perfectly this time.  I didn’t have to shorten the shafts of the arrows and had enough room for a 1 inch space between them.

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I auditioned a ridiculous number of prints for the corner posts on this border before realizing that I needed a solid.  Everything else competed with the prints on the arrow, so a bright pink was chosen.  The ninth border is a braid or herringbone  pattern made up of dozens of little strips of orange fabrics.  It’s not what I originally planned color-wise but I like it.

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Nothing is laying flat on these borders because I haven’t sat down to remove the paper from all of them.  (Any suggestions for quick but gentle removing of paper from paper pieced blocks is most welcome!)  Regardless, I’m happy with these borders and had fun making them.  I have decided to add two more borders to this quilt and then call it finished.  Right now it measures 72 inches square.

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I’d like to finish this before Saturday.  Wish me luck!

Jennifer Linking to Freshly Pieced

Ready


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It has begun.  I sat in my kitchen this morning as the first rays of light began creeping through the blinds.

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Last month I found this indigo dyed table runner for $3.  I like how it looks on top of the French linen mangle cloth I use on my table (which I obviously don’t bother to iron!)  As we swing into school I find myself wanting to simplify everything in the house to a clean blue and white color scheme.  I’m not sure why; perhaps the simplicity of it speaks to what I’m trying to feel inside.  Perhaps I like the contrast it provides for the family room full of school supplies ready for use.  Maybe it reminds me what a fresh start the school year is for all of us.

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My 7th grader started today.  Tomorrow six of them will go.  One starts kindergarten in a week.  It will take a couple of weeks for things to shake out and for a real schedule to come together, probably after Labor Day.  It’s the time of year when we have feet in two different worlds and I hope the transition is a good one.  I want to be the calm in the storm for all of them as they find their bearings.

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Calm and ready.  And simple.  Waiting for what lies ahead.

Medallion: Pluses and Arrows


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I took a little break this week from my Anchor Quilt project to pull out a WIP.  After cutting and piecing a lot of one inch squares, the next border on my Lone Star Medallion quilt is complete.  It’s a busy border with the King’s Road print used as the background and a floral print (both from Pat Bravo’s Carnaby Street collection for Art Gallery Fabrics) for the pluses, but I like the way it looks.

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These little plus signs measure 1.5 inches across, and the tiny squares finish at 1/2 inch.

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One of the things I really like about this border is the way it reads as an almost solid from a distance, but has interest when you look more closely.

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I also think it gives the eye somewhere to rest after the extra-busy look of the mosaic and flying geese borders that sit just inside it.  It kind of calms things down a bit.

Now I’m working on the next border, which involves twelve more of these:

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Yep.  Twelve more paper pieced arrows are on their way to being complete.  I have two sections done and now get to do the scrappy piecing of the ends.

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I really love the way these arrows look together.  In fact, several of my children have walked in the room and told me I should make an arrow quilt with them grouped like this.  It would be pretty, wouldn’t it?

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And so it’s slowly coming along.  What do you think?

Jennifer Linking to Freshly Pieced

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