Just For Fun

I've been working on a purely recreational project this week. It is part of my new plan of clearing my work table. I'm just diving into whatever project is sitting on top of the pile, or refusing to put fabric away until I use it as intended. In this case, I'm using up leftovers from the tote bag I made. I started with a cute idea from a magazine, scaled it down and am now adding my own border since I wasn't crazy about the border in the original.

This is a fun border to build and is made up of 3-1/2 x 1-1/2 inch rectangles. It's great for tops with a lot of colors in them; you can use scraps from the top and also add like-minded fabrics from your stash. I don't worry about how things resolve on the corners, or even if the string of rectangles come out even on the ends. There's enough visually going on that it doesn't make much difference. I generally start by arranging a few rows of rectangles to get a feel for distribution, then start sewing them into border strips, and then to the quilt top. Any overhang gets trimmed off before the next side or row goes on.

I think this one will have three rounds. In the picture, the yellow on the right is the quilt top and I've sewn the first border onto the left side. The rest of the fabric is being auditioned.

For a look at another quilt using this border, see this post.