Done Leaping . . .

I've finished Leap Year!  

As I mentioned in my earlier posts, I wanted my Leap Year to be just a little bigger.

So step one, I added more blocks and a little black trim to all the blocks.

To make this project even bigger I decided I would add a couple of black borders and 3 background borders.  

So to start, I made my inner border the same width as the sashing .  

Then I added this thinnish black border, 

 with the intention of adding an even thinner background border, another thinnish black border, and wrap the whole project up by adding a wide outer border using the background fabric.  So it was at about this stage when I figured out I was taking away from the center of my quilt by adding all those borders.  Borders whose only purpose was to make the quilt bigger.

I also decided I really liked how the pattern had a wider border around those outer blocks, it set them off more.

So off came the first two borders and on came the wider border.

Isn't it amazing what a difference less than an inch makes!

Then to finish things off I added one last black border, not thin, not thinnish, but just right.

Sometimes a quilt needs to be its size, not the size you want it to be.

I've name my project Date Night, because once I jazzed up that little black dress fabric that's what popped into mind, like the fabric was all dressed up to go out.

This is Lifetime Quilt Number 90!
It finished at 43" x 53"
It has approximately 427 pieces.
The pattern is Leap Year by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co
The print fabric is little Black Dress by basicgrey for Moda
The background fabric is American Jane Patterns by Sandy Klop for Moda.

The black flange was cut 1 1/4" wide then folded in half and pressed before adding it to each block.

I've not seen the usual number of finished projects out in blogland for this project as I've seen in past months.  I sure hope we have a good parade.  If you've not started yours, and you stick with the pattern, and don't change your mind 5 times about the border, you can have this done in a day, I swear!

See ya at the parade!  (Sinta's & Sherri's blogs)

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Still Leaping . . .

So back to Leap Year, the June Schnibbles of the month.

This is where I left you on my last Leap Year post, wanting to make this bigger.

I got several great suggestions that I'm going to pass along just in case sometime you're wanting to make a project bigger; add sashing to the blocks, set the blocks on point, and add some outer borders.  Someone was even nice enough to track down a few more little Black Dress charm packs for me.  All great ideas and very helpful, thanks!  

But I didn't go with any of those ideas.  Instead I thought maybe I would like the looks of some blocks that had background fabric in half of the squares, so it would look like some of the fabric was free, and not part of a square.

It's hard to tell what a horrible idea that was from this picture.

The "free" blocks are the first block in row one, the third block in row two, the second block in row 4 and the last block in row five.  

Here's a better picture.

 It was at this point that I realized that my favorite thing about this pattern was the 16 patch blocks, and how I liked the blocks to look like blocks, not some squares floating off into space while the majority of the other blocks didn't.  I found those floater blocks distracting.

Then I came up with another idea.  What if I used the light fabric from the family that I hadn't used yet, because it blended in with the sashing fabric, and set it apart by adding a thin black border to each block?

And that's what I did!

And I like it. Not only does it help the blocks with the lighter colored fabric stand out, I think it adds a nice little something something to all the blocks, kind of like they're more dressed up!

So this is where I am now, not done, but definitely back on track.  Good thing too, the parade is just days away!

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Leap Year . . .

I've started the June Schnibbles of the month, 

Leap Year.

I've decided to use Little Black Dress by basicgrey for Moda for my project.

And that pretty tiny dot fabric for my sashing.

The pattern has a couple of block options and block size options.

I'm going with the larger (7 1/2") sixteen patch version.

I like all my blocks but want to make my Leap Year bigger.  Unfortunately I'm out of medium and dark toned charm squares.  I don't think I can get any more charm packs until August.  I'm sure I'll think of something, stay tuned!

Housekeeping - 

I'll take guesses on my summer yo-yo production giveaway (yesterday's post) through the weekend, then I'll close the blog to comments so I can provide weekly updates.  The last time I checked Nancy was the low with 103 and Shelley was the high with 1,832.  Your confidence in my ability, time and commitment are inspiring, I'll give it my best shot!

Beth, that adorable sewing machine cover pattern is in the August 2012 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting.  I get my issues in the mail, I wonder if it just hasn't made it to your store yet.  The Fat Quarter Shop is selling the magazine, take a look so you'll recognize the cover when it does show up in your neck of the woods.

Enjoy your weekend,

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