Sunday, July 26, 2009

Zigzag Border

I love how this string quilt is coming along - bright and colorful yet it still fits in with the antique utility quilts that I love so well. Kristin's comment about it not needing a solid border made me think about how I could extend the strings out. I like this, emphasizing the zigzags even more.

That means I have a lot more string blocks to make. If I could just get Lily out of the way:

I think the little cats get extra fiber in their diets rolling around on the cutting board. I try to pick off as many of the fabric bits as I can, but I suspect they still manage to eat some of them when grooming.

I want to keep this quilt really scrappy, so yesterday I cut more strips from reproduction fabric Siobhan gave me. Some of it is really busy, so it is good for strings (not so good for letter making). I cut so much managed to make my hand ache - not even the one holding the rotary cutter, but the one that was keeping (or trying to keep) the ruler in place. Ow. Stupid repetitive stress.

This morning I finished basting the monster beast that is Slither Eek Boo. I even got some hand quilting done on it today, but nothing interesting yet. Right now I'm just going around letters.

I just saw this now. What a hoot. It's a trailer for a book (that I will totally read) but I would sooo go to see this movie as well:



I'm reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies right now and it is really fun. I just wish there was a great trailer for it too.

Woohoo for Lance Armstrong finishing third in the Tour de France. Okay first would have been really cool, but not bad for an "old" guy coming out of retirement who's on the same team as Contador. What an amazing year for the Brits at this year's tour. Bradley Wiggins in 4th place and Cavendish winning 10 stages. Too bad this tour was arranged to be so boring, even the much vaunted Mont Ventoux was rather dull. More mountain top stage finishes next year please.

30 comments:

Nat Palaskas said...

I really like the border A LOT! It blends the whole quilt together very nicely.

Dena said...

The border is a nice finish to your string quilt.

Anonymous said...

I'm just going to add my opinion on the border... I think the 2 rows of zigzag distract from the letters. Maybe you could use a solid border, say 1" or more wide, which would frame the interior portion of the quilt. You might be able to also use the same color for the binding. --from Annette

stitchinpenny said...

Pokey looks so adorable. I love the strings and word mix. I am looking forward to making a string quilt. I am not quite free enough yet to make letters. Thanjks for making life fun by stretching my horizons.

Twisted Quilts said...

When you showed it the other day I was not crazy about the string blocks but it has grown on me. I like the fact that the words are not prominent, you have to look for them. Great scrappy look.

Beena said...

Miss Lily sure does look like she's going to be picking up a lot of leftovers from the matt board!
Your Hope and strings are looking amazing. So much work! It will be gorgeous!
Can't wait to see the updated pics of Slither, Eek and Boo!
The book trailer is hilarious!

Anonymous said...

Love the border! Its excess energy begs the eye to rest in the HOPE blocks - and isn't that your point?

Seriously? Pride and Pred & Zombies? Two of my favorite things all in one book??? I'm going to have to keep an eye out for it.

Michele Bilyeu said...

You need to buy a Fiskars cutter-ruler combo unit. It's a one piece ruler that also cuts. It's 6 1/2" wide by 24" long and one side has an attached sliding rotary blade you simply press down on. It's completely stable all the time and doesn't slip around at all. Mine cost $25 from Walmart on sale. Fabulous for string cutting but I use it for most everything now. http://www.quiltersreview.com/article.asp?article=/review/product/011105_a.asp

You will not believe the difference in makes when you're doing a lot of strip cutting! I think Joanne's has it too...for a little more money.

Kristin L said...

Oh yeah!

Susan said...

Oh wow! I like this one a LOT!

Victoria Findlay Wolfe said...

You know how to work it out. Have fun with it! I'm guessing this is not as big as it looks when i see the blocks sitting next to pokey... how big is it?

Lynda said...

The zigzag border looks fabulous! Even with all that going on, it makes a perfect statement! (Also love the 'LIVE' in there!)

Sharon said...

I really like your border idea! It adds more zing to the quilt. I think it looks just like some of the antique string quilts I've seen. The ones that you can tell the maker was thinking "more is better"! How big are the blocks? They look like 4 to 6 inches.

I see Lily is getting the hang of being the supermodel - she's been practicing and it shows! And why do the cats always want to wallow in the scraps and threads??

Thanks for the video! That is great - I'd go see that movie too! I'll have to look for "Pride" too. Sounds like one I'd like!

antique quilter said...

love the zigzag border too, I might go as far as planning the colors to make it more dominate in the movement of the zig and zag :)
Kathie

Faith said...

I love the scrappy quilt idea there, really bright and shouts out hope to you, lovelyx

YankeeQuilter said...

I like it! (both the quilt and the you tube video!)

Anonymous said...

The zig zag border is a nice idea but NOT for that quilt. There is so much going on there already and the zig muddies the whole thing up. I think you need something around the border that stops the eye.
Go back and look at your (beautiful) quilt before and then go look w/ zig...def. a detractor on this part. quilt IMO

Anonymous said...

It's just wonderful. The zigzag border is perfect.

...only thing: it's soooo high energy, how would anyone ever sleep under it? ;>

rainey

StarFortress said...

I like that the two HOPE and LIVE blocks have LOVE in them too.
H O <-- L I

P E <-- V E

(Yeah, it's a little bit of a stretch, but love is always worth it.)
That's an awesome quilt, thank you for sharing!

Bonnie K. Hunter said...

Loving the stringies!!! Aren't they fun? Addictive? Can't make just one? want to keep making them forever?! Well..I do :c) They are mindless and wonderful....and I'm way too stressed. Whhhhaaaaa!!!!

Malissa said...

As an art therapist working in a hospital, I'm particularly moved by the "hidden" messages in there. What a lovely idea.

Kim said...

I know this quilt will talk to you and tell you what to do....
I think the way it looks now gives it a real "old fashioned" feel.
I just love it and of course the choices of how to finish it are endless.

Happy sewing

Kristin Shields said...

Wow, wow, wow! I think this string is fabulous. I like the border and can't wait to see more. The words look great when they are separated by the string blocks as opposed the the photo in the last post with all the words together. It's gonna be great!

Rosalyn Manesse said...

Now I'm falling in love with that string quilt!

Anonymous said...

I agree with Michele,
the Fiskar cutter combo will reduce your wrist fatigue.

For your kitties safety too. The blade on a rotary cutter can result in serious wounds. Until you switch.... If you have a padded eye glass case, slip it in between use. The sides are snug enough that a cat's paw won't be able to tug it out.

Delia

Susan in SC said...

Miss Lily looks like she has everything under control! I love the colors in your quilt.

rainey said...

I really like the zig zag border. But maybe a narrow solid inner border would give the eye a tiny bit of rest.

Tanya said...

I never thought about the cats getting fiber! Yeah, mine eat a lot of threads too probably. They hairball it right back up though!

Angie in SoCal said...

I love your string and alphabet quilts - how cool is that! Look forward to seeing the slither, eek boo quilt. What a great idea.
Angie.

Anonymous said...

sooooo pretty and your cat is cute too! feel free to come over and link your favorite quilt to my blog!