borders, borders and more borders

 I decided to make both versions of the fish quilt. I love the fabric that much.  I started the small version first.  I finished peicing it this morning.   sorry about the lens flare on the first picture too windy in the sun less so in the shade. but you can see the bright sun over the edge of the wall.

Right before the wind ripped it off the wall.  after the third time it happened I gave up and moved to the grass.

So here is where I am at now.   the pattern directions call for a 6 in border around the quilt.  I have made this pattern twice before and the border is nice but kinda plain and kinda over powering.  I am going to use the trout on a black fabric for the border.  but then I was thinking I could do a 2in inner border of the blue waves. and either 4in  or 6 in outer border in the black trout.   

Again it was windy so my quilt was having a hard time staying in one place.

Dog Days of Summer

In a couple posts ago I mentioned the double up of green fish fabric and no red/orange fish fabric.  I set time aside to go to Santa Fe to get some of the orange/red fabric.  I knew they had gotten a new bolt of it and the green in.  It wasn't hard to talk my mom in to going to Santa Fe as well.  She does fused glass art among other things.  In Santa Fe they have a Bulleye glass resource center, and they were having a big sale over the weekend.  

Bebekins does really well in the car and travels remarkably well for some one who is 2.  Sunday was not one of those days.  After an hour in the car she was done.  We first stop at Santa Fe Quilting, and she just wants to run and not be cooped up.  She wasn't too badly behaved, till we went back to the car.  She didn't want to be put back in her car seat.  I ended up taking her to the park and sent grandma over to the glass store.   They just finished redoing the area around the train station in Santa Fe and put in this incredible park next to it.  The park has a water play area, a fantastic slide and rock climbing area and a rope jungle gym.  All of which had to be explored by bebekins.  Being a little baby dousing rod, we first went to the water play area.  It was a beautiful early fall day in northern New Mexico.  Still too hot for comfort (about 95), but a nice breeze and intensely clear blue skies.  The perfect day to play in the water.

Big Version or Small version

I love the perfect 10 pattern by swirly girls design.  it is a fantastic pattern for large print fabrics.  but the problem with it is that it is a throw size, a very large throw size.  so when it came to making the fishy quilt I have in mind I pulled the pattern out and began to draft up my quilt.  so here is the throw size with the fabric laid out sans the borders.  finished it will finish out about 60x72 inches, and I was pretty close on the pattern the past two times I used it.

Here it is in a more useable size.  I doubled the pattern width wise and added a fourth row of elements to the bottom.  It should finish in the range of 92x112 to 100x120 depending on how I do the borders.  smaller if I do a single border and larger if I do a double border.  either way big enough to fit my king size bed.

So which size should I make and would my husband totally revolt to sleeping under a giant fishy blanket.  or do I say yes and make both and have a matching throw to match out bed blanket?

Quilty Inspiration

Two posts in two days.  the world might end or something.  but I found this and just had to share

I ran across this blog today BibliOdyssey. I think it is my new favorite blog,  Sorry Dr. Isis of On becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess.  BibliOdyssey has so many great scans of old books.  I am looking through them and think of that would make an awesome quilt ooh that would make a great freemotion filler design,  OOo shiny.  I could look at these pictures all day.

bad weekend for crafty goodness.

So the last post had pictures of the lovely trout fabric I absolutely love.  I have been looking at different patterns and planning on a quilt to use the fish.  I went back to an old favorite in terms of patterns and am going to use perfect ten by swirly girl designs.  so I went about getting the rest of the fabric I need.

Disaster 1)  I order some of the green fish and the red fish on line.  and cause I ordered them from two different places and through not paying attention I ended up ordering 5 yards of green  not 2.5 yards of green and 2.5 red.

Disaster 2)  I went to the store in town that had the fish in black cause I wanted extra to fussy cut the border.  they have sold out of the black.  evidently it is a very popular fabric cause when I go back to get more from local stores they have sold out.  this isn't the first time with this fabric that this has happened.

Disaster 3)  so I am making a striped cardigan for the bebekins.  I am reading the pattern it says at 6 inches divide the stitches to make the front and back.  I though that is awfully short  but ok.  I went ahead and made it 7.5 inches. and then I keep knitting I knit the first panel of the front and I hold it up to my daughter.  the cardigan is plenty big enough to go around her   but it is just way way to short.  my daughter is 2 years 4 months and verging on giant.   so I am trying to figure out in what world this length of this cardigan is 4t. I ended up ripping out what I did down to the arm holes and adding another color repeat and then going to reshape the arm holes.  this will make the arm holes 10 inches from the bottom.   seriously if I am going to make something for the bebekins I want it to fit her for more than 5 minutes.  she does have two younger cousins that it can be passed down to but still