Chain Link Quilt

yesterday I finished sewing together the main part of my huge epic millefiori quilt. Then I folded it up and set it aside so that I could work on something a little less overwhelming. 

I have about five works in progress folded up in my closet, so I perused the stack and pulled out a couple that needed borders.

I felt like working on something with happy, summery colors and which wasn't too large, so I chose this one I had started a few years ago at one of our quilt retreat at Shekinah.

this morning when I started on it, it didn't have the wide white outer border yet.

the body of the quilt was quite a lot of fun to make. I started with two packages of those mini charm packs that have 42 2-1/2 inch squares in them, a stack of fat quarters from the shot cotton line by Westminster and a couple meters of white fabric.

basically I pieced together rectangles of three little squares and sewed a border around them with a solid color.  (in case you're interested in the math, the pieced rectangles measured 2.5" x 6.5" when they were sewn together.  The side rectangles of solid measured 2" x 6.5".  the top and bottom rectangles of solid fabric measured 2" x 5.5".  so, I completed Brick measured 5.5 x 9.5")

after that, I cut out quite a few 5.5" x 9.5" rectangles of white fabric.

I laid them out on the floor in quite a few different pattern combinations and decided that I needed a few extra pieced "bricks" to play with.  I was many miles from the quilt store, and had no yardage of the patterned fabric line with me, so I just used white centers.

when I was happy with the layout of the colored bricks I just filled in the background with the right number of white rectangles and half rectangles for the top and bottom of the staggered rows.

this morning I added a 5 inch border of solid white and then strip pieced some 2 inch strips of white and colored fabric for the little pieced squares border.   later I hope to sew on the pieced border and then perhaps add another white strip around the whole thing.  i'm not sure if I have enough of any fabric on hand here for the backing, so I might need to go shopping before I baste and quilt it.  there's a lot of white background in this one. I'm a little, well, a lot puzzled about how I'm going to quilt it.

hope you're having a great weekend, and that your Sunday is filled with pretty summery colors too!

Bonnet Girls progress

 I spent some time with the bonnet girls quilt.  It needed a border, so I decided on a pretty simple strip-pieced squares on point.  It is a seminole technique where you cut up strip sets and sew them together in a staggered way, like a staircase, and the extra fabric on the sides is later cut away.

 To get the pattern to go around the corner, I had to add a little strip of yellow at the top and the bottom of the central unit:

 and then I added a one-inch border of the gray, and a 4 inch border of white....

now it's all ready to baste!  and I pieced a back from some fabrics from my stash, so I don't even need to go shopping for the back... I guess that means no excuses for not basting it today (or tonight, or tomorrow...)
Actually, I do have another quilt that has it's binding ready to be hand-stitched to the back, and maybe that's what's beckoning to me now.
Hoping you are having a nice Wednesday!  It is the Wednesday link-up to see what others are working on....

Pieced Borders

Just added a new link to the Tutorials section on the sidebar, called Pieced Borders,  it is from Quilter's Cache, by Marcia Hohn.

I was just on the site looking for an idea for a border to add to the quilt pictured above, that I worked on in December. 
I felt the need to finish  some projects, so yesterday I went to the quilt store to shop for backings and came home with enough fabric to back three! quilts. 
However, as I was laying this one out on the floor to baste, I wondered if I should add another outer border. 
That brings me back to the website I visited.  It turns out that it has had over 21 Million! visits.  Wow! 
Briefly looking over the site, I can see that it is a very extensive resource,  so it is a really good one to keep in mind when you want some ideas for trying new blocks with some good instructions.
this is the link for pieced blocks,  here