This is Astrid, posting. My friend C finally finished a quilt that began, for her, as a quilt top she purchased at an antique sale. She paid $20.00 for the quilt top that had blocks that were hand-pieced, which were then sewed to each other on a sewing machine. It has bandana fabrics surrounding sixteen-patch blocks. She purchased some bandana yardage to use to complete the quilt. She did get it finished, and I like the scrappy yet sharp look of it. Then, last week, guess what came in the mail? I got some samples of a new line from Benartex fabrics. I whacked them into 2 1/2 " strips and sewed them together, then cut them in half, then switched them around and sewed them back together to get some cute four-patch blocks. Then, I put the four-patches together in groups of sixteen, to make my own sixteen patch blocks, not unsimilar from the ones in C's bandana quilt.
I did sew the borders around each patch in the equal-length frames fashion. I used four 10" strips to make the borders (or sashing) around my blocks. I left a bit unsewed on the end of the first strip. Then I worked around my block, sewing on the other 10" strips, until all I had to do was finish sewing down the first strip, so the last strip butted up against the first strip. This makes a pleasing balanced finish to each block. It is not as noticeable with a small, all-over print or solids, but it is with fabrics that have a row design or stripes.
I went over to Jane's for a visit and she helped me hang my finished quilt on her design wall, and she took this nice photo.
