Tic-tac-toe

November is always a good month for quilting for me. Not just because it has gotten colder outside but because it is hunting season and I dare not go into the woods.  The month isn't over and I still hope to finish a quilt on the frame.  It may not seem that I have been very productive, but I have planned a lot of projects and begun to cut and kit them up. I also did a little work on some Comfort quilts for the St. Peter's group.

 I finished my tic-tac-toe quilt this morning.  I thought I would wait and do the pieced border at Studio 3 but instead decided to just get it done and out of the way. I can't believe how much I enjoyed the silly little 9-patches. Even the checkerboard border went together very quickly. As you can see I did not round the corners with little squares.   That was because I didn't plan the border I just started sewing.  Like I said it went together quickly. The lights and darks don't match up in the 4 corners in a way that I could use a 4 patch unless I rip.

         

The 9-patches were strip pieced using 2 strips. Lots of people don't like strip piecing, but I think it's the best. The leftovers from a strip set are never wasted around here and go into anything from 4-patches to crumb quilts. If you don't like the leftovers from a strip set, then simply cut the strips to the length you'd cut the squares from before you begin.

What I did for the little 9-patches here was to start with 1 3/4" strips. The light strip was 7" long and the dark was 9" long. Stitch with top edges even and sew a 1/4" seam allowance with right sides together. Press toward the dark. Then I sliced the strip set into 1 3/4" wide segments. The longer dark strip had a square cut off the end.  The pieces were then rearranged to create the units shown. I didn't bother with the last seam because I like to keep you guessing or some such thing.



I had Mark help me pin the tic-tac-toe  top to the flannel wall so that I could plan the last border width and measure for it. If the quilt fits I like to spread the top on the wall to measure for borders. I don't know what he was thinking but as soon as it was up on the wall he stood back and proceeded to tell me just what shade of blue I should use for the last border. I don't know where he got the idea I wanted some input from him so I got a kick out of that. In the end he agreed that the same blue I used for the sashing should be used for the outer border but not to make it any wider. I just love that he's expressing his opinion about my quilts these days. When I began quilting  over 30 years ago, he couldn't have cared less.  Maybe this is the winter I can get him started on his own quilt project.

I'm planning on doing a tutorial on joining the ends of binding strips once it has been applied to the quilt. So check back in the next few days to see that.
 Never mind. Here's a tutorial that shows how I do it. 
 http://piraterodgers.com/tutorials/ending-double-fold-binding/index.htm

I planning to do some blog hopping,

starting with the blogs that have joined this linky party.
Quiltingismorefunthanhousework.com
and smallquiltsanddollquilts.com