Note To Self: There Are No Magical Border Elves Who Finish Quilts While You Are Sleeping

Oh my gosh, y'all -- I would so much rather be making blocks for a new quilt rather than putting seven borders on this WIP (Work In Progress) project that I've been puttering around with for the past six(!) years!  When I came up with this bright idea of Mork's rainbow suspenders for a quilt border, I was only thinking about how cool it would look and not thinking at all about actually having to go to all of this bother at the tail end of the project when I just want to be DONE with it already!  I procrastinated cutting the border strips after I cut the black inner border a couple months ago -- swiftly remembering how much I hate cutting long lengthwise strips for a big bed quilt.  Well, I finally cut them all and have been piecing them together and attaching them to my Retro '80s Building Blocks sampler.  This is where I left off last night, with only the final purple border strips waiting to be attached:

Only One More Border to Go!

First, I'd joined the Kona Lipstick and Kona Black borders together, pressing the seam allowance towards the black on the top and bottom strips and towards the red on the left and right side strips.  That way, the seams nested and locked together nicely when I mitered the red+black border corners.

Trying to Keep Organized...

Then the next four colors were strip pieced together to apply as a single border: Kona Tangerine, Kona Grellow, Kona Peridot, and Kona Ocean.  

With seven border strips on this quilt, each one finishing at 1 1/2" wide, there was great potential for waving, ruffled edges if each border had grown just a bit from the one before. To make sure that didn't happen, I pinned the strips liberally and used the Dual Feed feature on my Bernina 790 sewing machine.

Pinned and Ready to Sew

All of this measuring and pinning definitely slows you down, but the payoff is borders that lay nice and flat with no wavy flaring edges.

So far so good, right?  In the picture below, my penciled arrows indicate my pressing plan to ensure that everything matches up nicely with minimal bulk at the corners.  The final purple (Kona Crocus) border is going on TODAY, just as soon as I finish this blog post, and then this quilt top will finally be ready for quilting!  It's not headed straight to the frame, though, as I have several clients' quilts that need to be quilted first.  Besides which, I've not yet decided on backing fabric or a quilting design.

It's Bigger On the Inside...

In other news, I live in a TARDIS now!

BBC Police Call Box Prop from the Doctor Who Television Show

I recently convinced my husband to repaint my formerly red front door to this lovely vibrant blue color that reminds me of the time-traveling police telephone box from Doctor Who.  He also repainted the shutters in a very dark, cool brown color.  I love it!

Valspar Precious Sapphire, AKA "Tardis Blue"

I didn't think to take a photo immediately before painting, but I found this one that was taken in the Spring that shows the old colors.  The difference in the shutter color is subtle but key -- the old brown was faded and dull, and had reddish undertones.  The new shutter paint is Valspar Fired Earth.

Adios, Barn Red Door!

Amazing what a couple of quarts of paint can do!  I even like the brick better now.  Well, this has been enough rambling for today, when there are borders needing to be attached to a quilt!  I'll be linking up today's post with my favorite linky parties, listed on the left sidebar of my blog, and then I'm headed straight up to my studio.  Happy Labor Day to those in the United States, and happy quilting, everyone!