In Progress

Here is the "triangle quilt" I've been working on. I had gotten all the pieces together last week and now I'm starting to work on the borders. I needed to know how big to make the quilt so I can plan the borders, right?

So I call my mom since the quilt is for her, "Do you want it for the wall or for a snuggle quilt for the couch?" I want it for my bed. "Which bed," I ask even though at this point I already know she wants it for her king-sized bed. A king bed is about 80" x 80". This top is 46" x 65". That means it has to grow a lot to be for a king bed. 15" in one direction and 34" in the other. Sheesh. But she tells me it's OK if it just sits on top and not drape down the sides.

For almost a week I struggle with how to put on the borders to make it big enough. I study pictures in quilting books of completed quilts to determine what is pleasing to me and to get ideas of possibilities. I wanted the borders to look good and not like I'd just stuck them on as an after thought. I considered the golden ratio for sizing my border widths as well as using Fibonacci numbers so I have a visually pleasing arrangement. I also considered making them wider on the short side and narrower on the longer side so it ends up more square.

I finally decided to make four borders of 1", 2", 3" and 5" for a total of 11" on each side making the finished quilt top 68" x 87". Not too bad, not square, but, hey, it's a gift, right? It'll drape over the sides a little and tuck under the pillows nicely.

Last night I sewed together the strips for the two inner-most borders then sewed it on the first side and making a major fatal mistake in the process. The triangles are stretchy and when I sewed the border strips on to fit they didn't lay flat. Not good. Not good at all. I took off the border and tried again, this time measuring it and not letting it stretch. This time it's not wavy. Yay. Tonight I'll add the strips to the other three sides and cut the strips for the third and fourth borders.