Progress and a disaster saved.....

This week I was determined to get a bit more sewing done and the week started very well with me finishing off all the appliqué edges on the remaining blocks for my version of the Metro Tiles Quilt (a pretty design by The Gourmet Quilter).

I then started putting the rows together.  Successfully adding the next row (with five blocks)

and the next (with three blocks) and then the final block in the bottom right-hand corner which completed the centre section of the quilt.

This is a QAYG pattern so each of the blocks has a different backing fabric and the finishing of the raw edge appliqué is the quilting as well. 

I love how the backing and the quilting look.

So far things were going very smoothly and, now that the centre section was complete, I was excited to get the border pieced and added. You may recall that I had already started planning and had finished fusing the appliqué pieces for the border of the quilt which I showed in a previous post. 

When I had laid the pieces out previously I knew that some of the rectangular blocks would need to be trimmed down slightly depending on the final measurement of the centre section. So I pulled them all out ready to trim up.

I measured the centre section of the quilt across in three places and determined that the border length that I needed was 39.5 inches (excluding the corner squares). There are three appliqué blocks in each border piece (again excluding the corner squares) and, using the pattern measurements these are 4 inches square. Therefore 3 x 4 = 12 and 39.5 - 12 = 27.5. Then between the appliqué blocks there are four rectangular blocks, so 27.5 divided by 4 = 6.9 (round up to 7) so each rectangular block should be trimmed to 7 inches long.

I set about busily trimming all the blocks (and here please bare in mind that these blocks are cut from the background fabric shown above and which I had only just had enough to cut the border blocks from) only to remember when I had finished them all that I had altered the width of the border from that in the pattern.  My appliqué blocks weren't 4 inches square but 3.25 inches square. Meaning 3 x 3.25 = 9.75 and 39.5 - 9.75 = 29.75 which divided by 4 = 7.4 (round up to 7.5) so now all my rectangular blocks were half an inch short!!! 

Some cussing and pondering later I came up with an alternative for my border!  I couldn't cut more of the background fabric but I did have some scraps of the batik fabrics that I have been using and also of the cream fabric that I had been using for the backgrounds of the appliqué blocks.  Here is my alternative....

I am actually really pleased with it as it introduces more of the colours from the tiles in the centre section of the quilt.

It does mean that there are a few more appliqué raw edges to finish off but I have been quite enjoying that process and it will keep me out of mischief for a bit longer!!

Have a lovely week! Until next time....😊 xx