TOP BORDER 10-11-12-13

I recently took a couple of my quilts to a long arm quilter.  I took what I had done on my DJ.  She said that it begs to be hand quilted.  And it would be difficult to long- arm quilt because of all of the stopping and starting required.  It took me a while for me to comprehend what she was saying about "the seams being pressed open, but now I get it. An EPP block is basically seams open because of the way it was pieced.  Normal machine piecing has the seams pressed to the side, so that makes it possible to stitch in the ditch on blocks like that.  It makes sense that you wouldn't want to run a big needle in the ditch in EPP blocks because it would break stitches.

I have a while to think about it, but there is no way that I would hand quilt this.  I just don't have the strength in my hands any more.  So, I think this will be one of those quilts that I will need to baste up and machine quilt myself.  Ive taken this long to piece it, I figure I can quilt a few blocks a day and eventually finish it.  But I have at least a year to go before I will get to that point, so I have a while to think about it.

Now, onto the last of the top border

  T-10

This one was a pain in the neck to make.  Many DIRECTIONAL pieces, mostly on the edges.  The most important thing is getting the points to match.  I generally do that by starting my stitching at the points and working out

T-11

I was missing many pieces out of the package for this row.  I had to make some of them.  I don't know if that is what made it so difficult to put this block together.  Obviously there are DIRECTIONAL pieces, so be aware and mark them accordingly.

T-12

This was the easiest triangle of the whole row.  Basically, just applique the leaf onto the background fabric and then glue to the background card stock.  the leaf was positioned this way, but if I had to do it over again, I would turn it so it looked like the top of the leaf is pointed to the tip of the triangle.

T-13

With this block the ovals and second row of triangles are appliqued on first.   There are directional pieces along the edge. 

So my top row of triangles are finished.  I worked on something every day and it took me about one month to finish the row and sew it together. 

Now I'm going back to do a few rows of blocks.  Row E is next.


Happy Stitching!  T