Wednesday, August 20, 2025

Another Border on the Cowboy Panel

Hi and welcome 😎 It's been a good week! On Monday the Out Of The Box (OOTB) Fibre artists group had an outside meeting. It was such a treat to chat and visit with friends, outside in a park. We even had a gaggle of Canada geese wondering over. What a treat! I've also spent time outside in the backyard, ignoring the weeds and feeding and watching the birds, squirrels and chipmunk. What a bunch! Their antics always make me smile.😀

Top Border on the Cowboy Panel

I'm so glad that the two side panels were easy to put together. If they hadn't been, I'm not sure that I would have gotten to the top panel so quickly. From the start, my math was a mess, even if I was so sure I was doing well! I don't know where I went wrong but it doesn't really matter since I'll be following the finished top border to make the bottom one!

Top and two side borders attached!

As I mentioned, I did all the math to figure out how large to make the brown rectangles between the blocks. I thought that I had it, but when it was put together, it was at least 2 inches longer than the quilt! 😕 I tried to figure out where my error was, but ended up just un-stitching and making each rectangle a half inch smaller. That should have worked but I still ended up reducing two of them by another half inch! By stretching the panel fabric, I was able to make it more-or-less even.....then I looked at the results and the border was upside-down! That's where I left it last night.

This morning in the backyard, I un-stitched the border and then sewed it together again, this time facing the correct way. It's done. As much as I would love to get the flimsy finished by the end of the month, I think that I need to leave it for at least a few days. I want to keep loving it and not let it frustrate me.

Where I un-stitched the border this morning

Here are some fun pictures of the Canada geese and the chipmunk and birds in my backyard.

What a treat! I don't usually get this close 😊

A small part of the gaggle of geese!

The bird was not intimidated by the chipmunk!

What I learned

I've said it before but I guess I haven't learned my lesson yet - STOP before getting too tired!
I'm actually getting much better at un-stitching and it doesn't bother me as much as it used to.
I have no idea where my math went wrong but at least for my bottom border I'll be measuring each part of the top border and using it as the template.
It would be nice to get all four borders done by the end of the month. I want to get this project out of my studio and gifted.
I've almost finished my next Table Scraps Challenge. The colour is teal and my BB quilt is almost completed. I attached the binding, clipped the edges and it's ready to be stitched.

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 545 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was a very productive week! Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting.

This week Kat of Scrap Box Quilts finished a child sized quilt with lovely scraps and a fleece backing. She FMQ with an assortment of designs, including a feather!

Kat's child sized quilt

Melva finished an aqua Viridian's Chain quilt - what a lovely photo by the morning glories!

Melva's aqua Viridian's Chain quilt and morning glories

Donnalee made a couple of very cute placemats for Zoey. Isn't she cute? Donnalee also made some very scrappy fall placemats. Check out her post to see Zoey's other placemat!

Zoey has new placemats made by Donnalee

Lovely scrappy fall placemat by Donnalee

Vicki of Vicki's Crafts and Quilting made two Happy Jacks wall hangings. Here is one of them with a cute backing. Check out her other Happy Jacks wall hanging.

Happy Jacks wall hanging made by Vicki

The back of Vicki's Happy Jacks wall hanging

Gail of Quilting Gail finished 2 lovely bags this week. Gail FMQ the loops in the first bag. This smaller bag with the hexie fabric is also gorgeous. Check out Gail's post for a link to the pattern and some options on making them.

Gail's large bag with some FMQ loop-d-loop

Gail's smaller bag with hexie fabric

Sally of Crafts, Cavies and Cooking loves free motion quilting, although she finds it stressful to start. Well she's off to a wonderful start on her Sunny Stars quilt. Check out the design on the back of the quilt. You'll want to read about it on her post.