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

The quilt that is kicking my butt

Aka the Marcelle Medallion. Don't get me wrong, I am absolutely loving making this quilt. But it is really making me aware of just how much improvement is needed in my ability to follow a pattern, and my piecing skills. And how much of a perfectionist I actually am ;o)

The centre star came together okay (although I'm really glad I decided to paper piece it), as did the first border. But then came the triangles. FOUR attempts at the triangles (insert any and all swear words here - I probably uttered them all during the process of making this border).  Admittedly I have never pieced equilateral triangles before - but that isn't really the problem here. The problem was messing up the cutting for this border twice. And then using a seam allowance that was too scant and having to unpick the buggers. Normally I use a scant seam allowance, and my accuracy is pretty good. But for these triangles, a scant seam leads to triangle bases that are just a bit too wide (they should be 2" finished - as you can see from the photo these were a smidge over). And a bit too wide x 10 = a border that doesn't fit.

So my two pieces of advice for the triangle border:

1. Triple check your triangle pieces against the template. This will help you avoid having to cut three lots of triangles ;o)
2. Use a true quarter inch seam when piecing your triangles together. It makes a huge difference.

After all the drama, my triangle border is on and I am really happy with how it's coming together as a whole. The DS print on my design wall is my possible third border - although I'm going to wait until I've pieced the fourth (flying geese) border before I decide for sure. I figure it will be easier to make the geese fit properly too if I wait until they are made before attaching the third border.

I'm off to finish up these geese - have I mentioned how seriously addictive this quilt is?

xx Jess