Checks

I went out to the lake to have lunch with Jane on the weekend and took some hand stitching with me to do in the afternoon. It was a great excuse to see her latest projects and I didn't need to look very far to find one. She has now finished hand piecing this one for her nephew and was looking for some ideas for borders.

The fabrics are so rich and a great combination - it just looks like it was made with a log cabin and roaring stone fireplace in mind. It will be perfect for a guy.

These were remnants that she had left over (aren't they gorgeous?) but very few of them had enough to make a border except for the blue on top. So she started cutting to see how much she'd get and was ready to make it pieced if she had to.

But she didn't have to - there's enough for a six-inch border all round. This piece is a classic 'make do' piece - it's an old dress that she salvaged that had a very full skirt; so full, in fact, that there was enough for this border. Love when that happens.

It still needed a little life so we played with adding in a narrow red border. This one would have worked but there wasn't nearly enough of it. So, there was only one thing to do - dive into the bins with her stash.

After looking long and hard the reds were finally revealed and this check rose to the occasion. She's going to insert a 2" red check border between the quilt top and the blue border and then cut a bias binding from the same material. Happy to have that puzzle solved we found ourselves singing that catchy little Monty Python ditty, 'I'm a Lumberjack and I'm Okay'...:) ....M