Friday, May 01, 2009

Wonky borders

I joined the letter blocks to spell my name for Tonya's collection. It was a little boring with plain yellow borders, so I decided to make some wonky piano keys with the fabric I had used for the letters and some green chili pepper fabric I also had, and while I was cutting pieces it occurred to me that a little red would go a long way towards livening it up a bit.
I'm sure there's a wonky piano key tutorial out there, but it didn't occur to me to check. I cut strips of fabric, then cut the strips into equal size pieces a good bit longer than I needed, to allow for trimming the uneven edges you get with wonky pieces. After chain piecing a bunch of pairs, I laid them around the block and decided the red would be better as an accent since my eye was drawn there, so I chopped the reds down and then joined the pairs into a strip.

I knew I'd need to trim uneven edges, but this was ridiculous! (Kind of a neat curve, though.) So I frogged a few seams and paid attention to joining them at angles that wouldn't cause such unevenness.
This I can live with! It'll trim it to straighten the edges and it will lie nice and flat. I had wanted more angularity, but I now see that I would have had to have cut my pieces much longer to be able to trim enough -- either that, or use templates, which totally defeats the purpose. I could also have pieced them on a foundation strip, which would have been smart. Next time!
The pieced strip on top looks very different from the loose pairs on the bottom.

Here's one more quilt from the Chicago quilt show. This one is made from old shirts, mostly striped ones, pieced to look like furrows in a field. I really like it. Looks like the great midwest as seen from an airplane. There's a very soothing feel to it despite all the lines.


Finally, do any of you have some blogging tips or tricks to share? I'm teaching a class of active seniors how to blog (using Blogger), and want to be sure I give them as much helpful advice as I can. Thank you!

15 comments:

Browndirtcottage said...

OK..your name is GOOD..the added border with a 'hint' of the red is really a 'plus'!!!

The quilt from the Chicago show is right up my 'Mr. Brown Dirt' farmer man's alley!! OH..sooo love the 'shirting'. Thanks soo much for sharing it. OOoouuu, would LOVED to have gotten to go!!

Nines said...

Love the wonky! And the furrows quilt is just too cool!

AnnieO said...

My hint for seniors blogging is to resize the photos. Tanya has a good lesson about that so that you don't use up all your photo storage the first year you start a blog!

Thanks for sharing your lettering and the Chicago quilt. I think an airplane's shadow appliqued on that old shirt quilt would be a great addition!

Clare said...

Your name looks great.

I love the Furrowed Fields quilt. I've got loads of DH's old stripped shirts so might start cutting them up.

Lynda said...

Your wonky strips look great! the bigger ones are good at the bottom, as a more solid feel is better at the bottom rather than the top.

Tonya Ricucci said...

I've never been brave enough to attempt wonky piano keys without paper. very cool and they look great with your name. that quilt is gorgeous. love the fabric patched together to make the piece, really gives it that utility quilt look I love. My hints for blogging can be found if you go to my blog and check out the labels: blogging thing.

Quiltdivajulie said...

great name block (love the wonky piano key border)

Tips for active seniors - my guess is they are all so unique, there is no 'one size fits all' except to think long and hard about the name you want BEFORE you start... I've heard do many bloggers wish they could start over again after they get a month or so into their blogging...

Finn said...

Hi Cheri, great job with the name. I especially like your version of the piano keys. Why look for a tutorial on them, you've just invented one! Perfect.
And Straight Furrows..my fav when it comes to log cabin layouts.
About the seniors? I started my blog nearly 4 years ago as I turned 65. Tell them the sky is the limit. And almost "anything" can be undone, and they should expect to make mistakes. Luckily, with blogger, you get "do overs"*VBS* Hugs, Finn

Victoria Findlay Wolfe said...

like the wonky piano keys! never tried the paper routine, but I like how you managed yours.
Stripes. ahhh! stripes... Love this quilt! I've been meaning to start collecting stripes. one of the other hundred or so odd projects i have in my brain....
as for blogging tips, well. There's always more to learn.... I'm always good with "KISS" keep it simple stupid...

jacquie said...

that's so great that you posted rosemary's quilt..she works at one of my local quilt shops. she's quite a quilter. she and i have talked about our shirting stripes quilts...both inspired by kaffe fassett's quilt.
i'll bet it was cool to see it in person. small world!

meggie said...

My simple advice is tell them to just RELAX! And have fun, & enjoy it all. Dont take it too seriously.
I like the wonky borders, though I could never bring myself to do them! The shirt furrows is lovely.

em's scrapbag said...

Love the border. The shirt furrows is simply wonderful.

Cathi said...

I love your border.
That shirt quilt is fabulous!

Rosalyn Manesse said...

I make piano key borders by piecing together about 5 strips of various widths. Then I use the rotary cutter and a ruler to cut to the desired width. After that, I join the bits into long borders and it goes very quickly. I'll send you an email about Seniors blogging, as I'm over 70 and have a blog.

Magpie Sue said...

Love that striped shirting quilt! Would love to make something like that myself someday (or maybe just own one someone else had made!).