Problem Solved

Earlier this week I was telling you about the Nicey Jane quilt I worked on at the retreat.  I wanted so badly to have the top completed when I left the retreat and in my singleminded-rush to get it finished at the last minute I cut the borders about 6 inches too short.  And I did not have any more fabric to cut new ones.  So, after I got home and unloaded everything from the retreat, I laid it out to assess the damage and find a solution.  I love to solve a problem.  As far back as I can remember, I view them as a puzzle and always believe there is a solution in there somewhere.  Don't you just love that feeling when you figure something out that's been nagging at the back of your mind.  Okay, I digress....this wasn't nagging at the back of my mind, it was screaming at me in the face.  I waited so long to find the perfect project for the Nicey Jane fabric.  I love every piece of this fabric.  I don't often like the entire line of any fabric, but this one is an exception.  It's evokes a happy, carefree feeling every time I look at it.  So, I was quite distressed when I messed up the borders.  Here's what I was left with as my problem to solve:

See, too short!  And I SO wanted to miter the border on this one.  I am planning a scalloped edge for this border and I thought using a miter instead of a "log cabin" type border would look so much better.  And, with the way I cut these borders, I didn't even have room to do the log cabin type.  So, I sat and thought and looked at it and walked away and came back and looked at it again......

Voila!  Problem solved!  And I think I like it just as much as a mitered border.  I went ahead and serged the edges of this since I am planning on hand quilting this one.  The fabric was already starting to fray pretty badly, especially with all of the messing around with it trying to fix the borders.  Then, I pinned the whole thing to my bedroom floor and sat down to baste it.  Since I am going to hand quilt, I wanted to thread baste instead of pin basting, and I thought "no big deal, can't take that much longer than pin basting, right?"  WRONG!  It took a total of 4 hours to get this sucker thread basted.  It felt like I should have it quilted in that amount of time!  And don't even get me started on how sore my butt is from crawling around on all fours for that amount of time.  I cannot wait to see this one complete!  I am SO excited!!!

I also finally finished my October bee block on the retreat and got it in the mail this week.  I came home from retreat with a great case of bronchitis, so it's been a slow quilting week at Tapestry Tree!  The NKOTB Bee is talking the month of November off and then it's my month.  I am still a tad bit undecided about what I'm going to send out.....better decide soon and get the fabric cut and packaged up!