Friday, April 28, 2023

Filling the borders

[There is a small giveaway at the end of this post!]
 
Hello everyone, from a still-soggy Baltimore! It rained two inches today and is supposed to rain all weekend. I wouldn't mind since we planted grass seed and such, but it also got cold again. The heat is back on and the gutters are working overtime. 

All of which made getting pictures of this week's project pretty difficult. Here is the best outdoor picture I got, on the covered back porch:

 
Not too terribly bad for a rainy day! At least you can see the borders pretty well. If you recall, this is the purple month for the rainbow scrap challenge, and I had half a million purple 4-patches leftover from another project. (You can read that whole story HERE.) I made them up into blocks and then arranged those blocks into a fun border. Then I had to fill the border!


This was not as easy as it sounds. There were so many options! Plus, I had used a really strong green for the border, and everything else just faded away with those borders. Because I did not want to do a lot of piecing, and because I had never made them, I decided on Disappearing 9-patch. The first attempt using some fabrics from a re-discovered kit was not a success:


See what I mean? They did not look good. The green is just so strong. So I dug out every single scrap of that green that I could find, including a few small pieces from the trash, and cut every piece of purple I had that was big enough, put them together and made some blocks that looked a lot better. It was a major pain to do, but it was worth it! 


I used every piece of purple I could, and I think it turned out well. I don't think I'll make the DNP blocks again soon, but they went fast and filled in the quilt, which finished at just about 48 by 60. 

So there is that quilt top done! Hurray! It used up a lot of purple, and I only have little pieces left. I managed to scrape together enough pieces to make two 6-inch blocks:


Cuties! I didn't get to make a couple of crumb blocks, but I definitely will, because I finally figured out what I'm going to do with them. For now, though, I am pretty tired of purple and ready for some new projects. I am really happy to have used up those purple 4-patches, though! They hung out here for way too long.

And now for the giveaway! In the spirit of letting go of things that do not give me joy, and clearing out some older stuff besides, I'd like to give away what remains of the old kit that I dug out:


As you can see, there are some themed charm squares that came with the kit (minus most of the purples), along with a bunch of others that I found hiding in there as well, the two "failed' blocks, a yard and a half  of themed fabric (in 2 pieces), and the pattern that was stuck in there, too. The fabric is Natural Garden by Holly Taylor, and I'll warn you that the reason that I never made the pattern is because it requires a specialty ruler. 

If you are in the US and would like to have this package sent to you free of charge (though I won't say no to postage), all you have to do is go and fill out this Google Form right HERE. You'll see that this comes up as a quiz, but you know both answers! This is the first time I've tried this, but I can't afford one of the services and comments get bulky, so try it and we'll do the random number thing on Wednesday, May 3. If the form doesn't work, I'll delete this and do something else, but I've used Google quizzes and they do work.

Okay, enough with the purple! On to something else! Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!
 
Super soggy! It was worth a try!


Sharing at soscrappy for RSC23.

16 comments:

Pat at Bell Creek Quilts said...

I really like how your purple (and green!) top came together! I think it's awesome and someone will love it forever. :)

Alycia~Quiltygirl said...

Oh isn't that pretty!!! and the photo with the rainy greens in the back - its just a perfect backdrop!! LOVE purple and green together!!!

Ivani said...

Congrats on the finish, Mary. Great use of purple squares. The 6" blocks are beautiful. Hope you have success with Google Form on your giveway. Have a wonderful weekend.

grammajudyb said...

You can’t go wrong with purple and green IMHO! Love your back porch photo! Look at all those fabulous greens in the woods behind the house! Gorgeous! The quilts fabulous too! I love it!

piecefulwendy said...

When there's a will, there's a way, right? You did a great job on filling out that border - it's a pretty quilt! As I'm typing this, the sun is shining, but I think it's just a tease - the rain will be returning shortly (and the chilly weather). Sigh.

LIttle Penguin Quilts said...

I love what you did with your purple and green, Mari! This has such a fresh spring look to it. I'm so glad you found enough of the green to make it work!

Quiltdivajulie said...

I love that strong green - and even if it was a PITA, I know you are much happier with this version. Good luck with the giveaway (not for me, thanks).

Jenny said...

That was a sucess in the end, pleased you dealt successfully with all those purple blocks.

Laura said...

You did great with the purple and green! Looks like purple hyacinths or crocus in a field of green! :)

Helenchaffin said...

I took have rethought the scraps in the trash at times,they all now live safely in a zip lock baggie marked crumbs🤣 the disappearing nine patch is an interesting block the way they blend into each other,it turned beautifully

Kate said...

Love the purples with that green. You definitely made good use of the 4-patches. Definitely a fun quilt for a rainy spring day.

sue s said...

I think I still have some of those 4 patches around. Good idea for using them up!

JanineMarie said...

Ooh, this quilt is the color of my teen years bedroom. Be still my heart. Good call on the border. I like how it’s just enough different from the quilt center to set it off while blending in, too. Yay for using up the purples.

Home Sewn By Us said...

Hi Mari! You did a FABULOUS job on that border. Hunting down all the purple and green fabrics was well worth your time. WELL WORTH!! I'm not raising my hand for your kit . . . mostly because I really need, no NEED to go through my too-large stash to purge the non-joyful items myself. Just yesterday I said, oh that's too pretty to use. Really? So, it's better to "save" it for the future when I don't like it any longer? Gosh. Great job on the quilt top finish. {{Hugs}} a bunch from soggy Wisconsin. ~smile~ Roseanne

Preeti said...

Purple and Green is a winning combination. And the way you cleared out every bit of green and made it fit - whoa! You rock! Thanks to the rain, I see green everywhere. I just pulled out a green Kaffe Fassett jelly roll from at least 7 years ago to make Positivity blocks. May is orange :-) See you soon!!

Susan said...

A perfect solution, which sometimes means more work than we'd planned. Another inspiring finish.