Quilt borders

Last weekend we finished moving things in my closet so I could hang my quilts. I have some that my grandmother made, and I didn't want to leave them folded. I have 2 butterfly quilts that she made. The green one was probably made in the 50's, and the turquoise one was made in the early 60's (it came to our house in 1964). After my brother left for college, they were always on the twin beds in his room with fancy embroidered and crocheted pillowcases on the pillows as the quilts weren't long enough to cover the pillows.

If you examine the green quilt, you can see it has the sashing fabric all around the outside. The turquoise one doesn't have any on the top or bottom. I really like how the green one looks - complete! The turquoise one looks like Grandma ran out of sashing fabric, but I know that wasn't the case. Grandma used that same sashing fabric in quite a few quilts, both before and after this quilt was made. She must have bought it by the bolt! I think that she knew that the second quilt was to fit a twin bed (my mother cajoled her into making it), and since my brother's beds had footboards, she didn't need to add top and bottom borders . The blocks are slightly larger on the turquoise one, so it fit the twin without the borders.

Last night I decided I needed my design wall back, so I put together these HeartStrings purple project blocks. I had it together as in the left photo, and it fit the size guidelines we use for HeartStrings. I couldn't stand it - it just didn't look complete. I kept telling myself I could put a wide binding on it, but I didn't convince myself. I had already located another piece of the purple - for use in another project - and decided to cut four more border pieces. I attached them around all four sides, and now, to me, the top looks complete. It's a bit large, but maybe some needy person needs a quilt for a double bed.

Happy Quilting

Becky

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