Catch up day

I haven't gotten much sewing done in the last few days, as my brother has been here.  So today is a catch up day. 

I had  2 emails with  questions about the "angled border" on  the cobblestones.   "How did you  do it?" and "How did you measure the lengths of the strips?"   So I thought I would give  better details here on what I did.

    I selected the fabrics I was going to use for borders.  On the right side I wanted a lot of light and a small amount of dark at the bottom.  I had a short piece of the medium (middle print) that I joined to the light strip. I joined those 2 fabrics just as  I would do when joining binding strips on the diagonal. 

This photo is from a quick binding tutorial, so the fabrics are not from this project, but the technique is the same.  The key is to remember to sew from the upper left to the lower right....corner to corner.  Draw a stitching line if you need to.  Cut the extra corner off  leaving 1/4" seam, open and press.   

  I then added the bottom piece in the same manner.  To keep the diagonals going in the same direction, be sure to have the previously joined piece on the bottom.  I had not cut the top or bottom piece to a specific length before joining.  I knew I wanted extra length on the ends when joined.  I used my "slip and slide" method to determine exactly where I wanted the diagonals to be.  

   Slip and Slide:  Place wall hanging on the design wall.  Place the border to be added next to it.  Determine placement by slipping it up or sliding it down.  In this case, I was most concerned with where the light angle was positioned.   Once I figured it out--- marked with chalk or pin on both the wall hanging and the border piece.   Then measure.....the wall hanging to determine the length of the strip you need for the border.  ( You need to keep everything equal, so measuring is important.)   Then pin the border in place--right side to the wall hanging matching the the placement mark.  Measure and mark the border to the correct length.   Sew, easing in if needed. Then  cut off the extra length at the top and bottom. 

  So I hope this is clear and  I will tackle the watercolor questions tomorrow. 

Happy stitching.