The first set of borders is finished. The HSTs are sewed together, but the strips are not sewn to the quilt.
The photo shows the border strips hanging over the top of my design wall. I worked hard at not putting the same print next to each other. They are controlled scrappy and I am pleased with the way they came out.
I didn’t have as many red-violets as I have other colors, but I do like that color. Not quite pink, not quite purple.
I know it is hard to see the borders, but, trust me, they are fabulous. 🙂 Click on the photos to see them larger.
Frolic! center with first border (detail)
I will start working on the blue HSTs soon.
I don’t know if I will keep this quilt or give it away.
I talked about trimming Frolic! the other day. I spent the weekend working on the pouch, but was able to sew the first border on to Frolic! as well. This corner detail shows the border up close and personal.
It was a BIG hassle, because the entire edge of Frolic! is on the bias. If I have any advice for you it is: DON’T MAKE YOUR EDGES ON THE BIAS. It is doable, as you can see, but a lot of easing went into adding the border. You can’t just sew and extra 10 inches on to the edge and trim it off. Bias stretches. By adding a longer border and trimming it, you will get waves and I didn’t want a wavy border.
N.B. I wouldn’t dare question Bonnie Hunter’s reasons for telling me to make the quilt this way. She had good reason (math craziness) for make the quilt this way. I just suggest that YOU not design a quilt this way.
Also, if I had been thinking, I would have sewed a mitered corner. I wasn’t thinking and I don’t think it will matter in the long run.
Frolic! center with first border
As usual, though I didn’t design this quilt, as you know, this quilt is larger than my design wall. Thus, it is hanging off the design wall a bit and might be hard for you to see in the second photo (right).
I have the HSTs for the next two borders, so I need to get sewing.
Yes, you have to experience every little detail of the process.
Can you tell I trimmed it?
The edges of the quilt were not squared during piecing, so the top center had to be trimmed. I did in two stages, mostly because I had to go back to work.
I am really pleased with this quilt. Piecing it all together made a huge difference!
Today would be Tax Day, but it isn’t and I am pretty sure I don’t need to go into why.
This is the last seam. I had to take a photo, because I feel like this top has been such an effort.
Frolic! Center Together
Yes, the top is together.
Finally! Seriously, I feel like this center took for-freaking-ever!
As I said last week, I have a long way to go before I can get it to Colleen, but this is major progress. I feel like I have accomplished something.
My friend Cyndi retired (even though she is about 35!) just before the shelter-in-place order and she is going to town on her UFOs. She is the rockstar who finished her UCAB already.
Frolic! Secondary Block
I think I might need to do something with the secondary blocks/setting blocks. They really look good sewn together. The bad part is that the block is made up of the edges of the main blocks. I could include the pieces on the edges of another block. I just have to figure out how to do it.
I liked this top before I started sewing it together, but I like it so much more now. Despite my whining, I think it looks great. I am constantly amazed how sewing the blocks together can change the look.
Someone asked me why I just don’t put it away and work on something else. Yes, I have been *almost* miserable working on this at times, but I want to keep my habit of not putting a quilt away. I don’t want to build up my UFO pile again after working so hard to get it down to a manageable size. It would be easy to put it away, but I don’t think it would feel good and I am sooooo looking forward to add the yardage to my “Fabric Used” spreadsheet!
I am finally sewing the Frolic! quilt top center together! Yay! I say and I am sure you say, because we have both, probably, had enough.
It isn’t really pretty, though, as I sewed sashing to the blocks in an attempt to chunk the blocks and that worked against me in the final stages. I have had to do some partial seams. Some blocks ended up with sashing on them and others didn’t.
< this is one of the good things about shelter-in-place: sewing at lunch time >
Since then I finished all the blocks, half blocks, quarter blocks: ALL. Hooray. Now I just have to sew the thing together.
This doesn’t mean the piece will be finished. There are still at least two borders, the back and the binding. Perhaps by the time shelter-in-place is over, I will have it done.
The weekend was tough. The sense of unreality I am home all.the.time was very strong. I couldn’t really wrap my head around it even though we have been living it. I took the car out for a spin and felt like I had forgotten the finer points of driving. It is hard to explain. The only thing I can do is not to think about the unreality and list off the good things I have.
Frolic! -early April 2020
Be that as it may, sewing must go on. I am focused on Frolic! I want that quilt off my design wall. I want to work on other projects. For once, I don’t feel like my weekend sewing was futile. I feel like I made real progress.
One thing I did to get to this place was sew a big chunk together (upper left hand side). Once that was done, I repositioned all the other blocks so that they would be in the approximate place they would end up when the quilt was finished. This small act allowed me to see what else I needed to sew. As you can see, All I need to sew is 4 more half blocks. Halleluijah! I can really see that the end is near.
You might wonder why I don’t just toss it on the UFO pile and move on to something else. That is devil talk! I don’t want my UFO pile to grown any higher than it is already. This thing will be ready to go to Colleen when shelter-in-place is over. With any luck, it will go with three friends.
The other day I crowed about finally finishing all the whole blocks for Frolic! I was really thrilled. I made progress!!!
🙁
Frolic! Back on Point
I didn’t actually finish all the blocks. I just counted wrong. I thought I had made 5 rows of 5, but in the photo, you can clearly see 4 rows of 5.
I didn’t figure it out until I was working on the corner and put the blocks on point. In trying to place them correctly, I realized I was short.
WTH?
I counted, recounted, looked for missing blocks and finally at the photos. I realized what I had done and that I was just so anxious to finish that I had counted wrong.
This was supposed to be fun, not a long and difficult process. I don’t mind difficult quilts with a lot of pieces, but I am still not quite recovered from Flying Away.
Now I have to decide whether to work with the blocks I have or make another 5 blocks. Those whole blocks have 65 pieces each. While I have some already made, I don’t have all made. 5 more blocks is not that many, but still.
I turned a corner on Frolic! the other day. Literally. I finally figured out how to piece the corner. It was all about wrapping my head around what pieces I still needed to cut since I hadn’t following the directions. That should teach me, but it probably won’t.
I actually pieced one, too. I may have also figured out how to piece the half blocks, but I haven’t tried yet.
I have been sewing a little each day on my lunch hour (who needs to eat?) and after work. It is keeping me sane while I help DH get used to working at home. A few seams a day really does make a difference.
Frolic! Whole Blocks
Now I am finished with all of the whole blocks. The next step is half and quarter blocks. Yes, I am going to make them.
You probably think Frolic! is taking forever. I think it is so you wouldn’t be wrong!
Frolic! Mid March 2020
I pieced a lot this weekend, what with COVID-19 keeping me at home 24/7 (no, I am not sick, but everything is cancelled), I really had nothing else I wanted to do. I finally finished sewing together all of the whole blocks.
After not getting a response to my plea for the Amy Bradley fabric, I am cutting the last bits very carefully and scrounging every last bit. I won’t have enough to use for the half and quarter blocks, but I found another fabric that will work as well. It has a similar blue to the background of the Amy Bradley fabric, so will blend in.
I spent another day Sunday, ostensibly sealing the fate of the cold I felt coming on, but really sewing. I did stay home in order to make sure I didn’t get sick. It was a great time to sew. I thought I would get as much done as I felt I had done on Saturday. It wasn’t to be.
I feel like I sewed as much, but I can’t see the progress. The progress isn’t as dramatic and I wanted visible progress.
After my efforts on Friday night and Saturday, I was hopeful that I would get the blocks done on Sunday. I had to make space on my design wall. I would gain space as the seams shrank the blocks together. That required sewing, so I got down to it. I forgot how much piecing Bonnie Hunter‘s quilt patterns require. I really did make progress. If you compare the two photos, they look similar at first glance, but do show the progress.
Frolic! – end of February 2020
Work finished Sunday:
Frolic! – early March
I also know I am on the brink of really having my progress show up.
I am backtracking. I worked hard on piecing Frolic! over the weekend. This is no different than other Bonnie Hunter Mystery quilts in that there is a lot of piecing. I think I pieced 1.5 blocks total. I worked for about 6 hours on this piece and don’t feel like I made a ton of progress.
Regardless, I had a lot of time to work on this piece and look at it. I think it may need to be on point. I may still set it straight, but I am thinking it may need to be set on point. Stay tuned.
Half and quarter blocks are not my favorite. As a result, I have been thinking about setting Frolic! in a straight set in order to avoid those pesky half and quarter blocks. Since I haven’t had the time to actually move any blocks around on my design wall, I went trolling for examples of the Frolic! quilt on IG.
I saw a number of blocks sets laid out in a straight set. Jeff Rutherford took a straight on photo that really helped me visualize how the quilt might look. Little Bunny Allison also posted a straight on photo.
Finally, I saw a previous Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt, On Ringo Lake, by Sew Angela. She has some setting triangles, but they are just a few pieces. This layout keeps the quilt on on point, but avoids me having to make those half and quarter blocks.
Perhaps I am just being lazy? There is a lot of piecing in this quilt (and all of Bonnie’s mystery quilts!) Barbara Reeves had a particularly nice example of the quilt as Bonnie intended, so it is still a possibility.
After the update the other day, the piecing on Frolic! went a lot faster. I think I reached a tipping point and was able to zoom right along. I made some more progress and feel like I am making good headway, though it looks like a mess right at the moment.
Frolic! Reveal in process
I believe I need 25 full blocks. The 7 I have are in various states of being sewn. The spaces are because of the seam allowances or missing pieces.
I haven’t dealt with the half and quarter blocks yet. I don’t like quilts where there are half finished blocks, in general. I am seriously considering a straight set. I laid out some of the pieces in that way before the Reveal. When I have a few more blocks finished, I’ll lay it out that way and see what I see. The corner pieces with the 4 patches make a very interesting secondary pattern.
