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Jacobean Journey Quilt - Outer Border

I've been working on the outer border for a while now and I'm about 75% done.  Out of 44 blocks I've got around 32 done so I'm getting there. I decided not to do a video of these blocks just photos. There's a lot of fabric placement and thread changes and trying to operate a camera at the same time is just begging for something bad to happen. So I decided not to risk it.

Here's the border block and corners. They are the smallest blocks I've done for this quilt. The borders are 4.5'x6" and roughly 12K stitches and the corners are 4.5" square with around 9K stitches.



Outer Border Corner

The outer borders require some accurate piecing first.  The first piece for the corner is strips of fabrics 1 and 4. The second strip is made from fabrics 3, 1 and 4. In the top photo of the square, strip 1 is the white, brown, white and strip 2 is pink, white and brown.

To make the square, stitch out your placement area. Then place strip 1, right side up and tack down. You need to line up the seams with the placement lines then tack down. If your 1/4" seam is off or wiggles a bit you're going to have trouble lining up the seams with the placement line.



Place a piece of tape at the seam areas and place strip 2, right sides together and tack down. The tape will keep your fabric from shifting. Place the strip 1 on the last placement area and tack down. 




Your block should look like this after the last fabric stip is sewn down. Next, place your backing fabric on the back of your hoop and tack down. Then place thread C in the needle and bobbin and stitch.



Place thread D, in the needle and bobbin and stitch. Finally, put thread A in the needle and bobbin and stitch the final decorative stitching.  Looks like my center white square is a hair too big and it makes the stitching in the center look shifted.




Outer Border

Half of the outer border is made with strip 1, which is made by sewing fabric 4 and 1 together and using single strips of fabric 3.  The other half is made using strip 2, which is made by sewing fabric 3 and 1 together and single strips of fabric 4.  The outer border block shown is made using my strip 2. You will also need scraps of 4, 3 and 1.




Begin by stitching the placement area.  Place your scrap of fabric 1 over the bottom triangle and tack down, using water soluble thread and trim along the left and right sides.  Change your needle thread to a neutral thread. Next, place your single strip of fabric 4 on the right side, right sides together and tack down, flip and sew down.




Place a piece of tape at the seam, align the seam of your fabric 2 strip (or 1 whatever your doing) right sides together and tack down, flip, sew and trim.




Continue alternating between fabric 4 (brown strip) and your pieced strip until you come to the top. Using scraps of fabrics 4 and 3, place the fabrics in their respective corners and tack down using water soluble thread. Place the backing fabric on the back and tack down. Now you're ready to do all the decorative stitching.



Since I'm working with my strip set 2, I'll start with thread D (on the pink fabric), switch to thread C (for the brown fabric area) and finish with thread A down the middle. 




Just remember to put matching thread in your bobbin and always pull it up to the top before sewing. I still get some thread nests but probably not as many. 

I'm finding the inner border to be much harder than the outer border.  With this border you have to sew 2 fabrics together. If I need to sew 3 together its a lot harder to get those seams to line up on the placement lines. Maybe its just me and my cruddy sewing skills. 

I laid out the blocks I've got done on my bed and I put each row in a zip bag. That way I'll sew each row together first, do the sashing and then start sewing all the rows together.  I took a few pictures using my phone and thought I'd give a sneak peak. 



At our last class, one of the ladies had started sewing hers together and it looks really, really good. I really can't wait to see all the quilts sewn together. Also, the quilt shop has decided they can't schedule our trunk show at the end of February and it turns out the date they settled on is January 17. So hopefully, weather permitting, I'll get some good pictures of other quilts that are being done in different color schemes. 







Comments

  1. I gotta tell ya.... I stumbled onto you accidentally on YouTube and I am chomping at the bit to get a hold of this one! Only problem is I have to wait until Purple Daisy releases their two-year hold. It's reserved for classes only. ~:-/ i had only seen the individual block you were working on. I had no idea it was like this! So elaborately beautiful. Beautiful, gorgeous work! Of course, that most awesome machine you have really helps. I should know, I have one like it ;) Can't wait to see this one done.

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