Tuesday 29 April 2014

That dreaded triangle border

As much as I'm enjoying making my second version of the Marcelle Medallion (designed by Alexia Abegg and found in her Liberty Love book), I must admit I was pretty hesitant about the triangle border after all the dramas I had with it last time. Because I'm teaching it, I wanted to work out an easy way to make this border fit, without the pain of unpicking and re sewing the borders.

This time around, I made my first border a little wider than the pattern's measurements, and cut it down to size once I had my triangle strips pieced together. It has worked rather well - I'm extremely happy with my points, aside from that pesky little one at the top left. I even tried to fix it, to no avail - so I'm going to leave it and hope that it won't be too noticeable when it's quilted. In normal circumstances it wouldn't bother me, but I still hope to enter this in my local (very traditional) quilt show this year, so I'm trying to be as perfect as I can :o)


Because that first border is a little wider than it should be, the whole thing measures slightly bigger than it should - but it won't be too hard to adjust some of the other solid borders to account for it. I'm hoping to be able to show you the quilts my students are working on soon - they are all SO different from each other, but look amazing so far. It is such a fun quilt to teach!

xx Jess

17 comments:

Rachaeldaisy said...

I really like your fabric choices in this. I know you pointed out the one mistake but I still can't see it, and I am wearing my glasses! :)

Charlotte said...

it's looking lovely! When I made a medallion quilt for my mum I ended up paper piecing the triangles (with freezer paper) because it was the only way I could do it without going insane!

Janine @ Rainbow Hare said...

This is looking great! It was a clever idea to trim the border afterwards and it's worked beautifully :)

Serena @ Sewgiving said...

I'm too scared to try this for the first time and you're doing it a second time?! Loving your fabric choices :)

Jess @ Scrappy n Happy said...

It looks awesome! Don't scare me too much, I might not end up making it lol

Lucy | Charm About You said...

Gorgeous! Glad you're having fun teaching :)

Anonymous said...

Loving this so much! The colours are so perfect.

DeborahGun said...

Those triangles do look so tricky. This is definitely a quilt I'd love to make one day!

wobblybobbin said...

I just started EPP ing the medallion star for my second Marcelle. Did you teach you students to use y- seams, or paper piecing? I need to get up the courage for a yseam or two ;)
I love the colors you've chosen!

Renee said...

It looks great! I didn't even notice the missing triangle point until you pointed it--it's pretty subtle. I really like the idea of making the solid border a little big and trimming it to size for trickier borders, I will keep that in mind when I make my medallion.

Hannlib said...

This looks great! The pain of those triangles is pretty much forgotten. I didn't add the solid borders till i had done the next pieced border, and then I calculated how bit the solid border needed to be to make the pieced one fit, if that makes any sense?!

Heather @ Winding Bobbins said...

I would dread a border like that too, but I'd say you nailed it!

Mrs Flying Blind... said...

There's always one defiant little triangle in the bunch - fact!
Looks amazing though xxx

Nicky said...

Looks fab Jess! Hope your students appreciate your expert teaching! I'm sure they will do well!

Katy Cameron said...

Glad it was relatively pain free this time!

Benta AtSLIKstitches said...

Looking gorgeous!

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