Faeries and Fibres: Anne H's Masai quilt is finished and making a swag border my way

Anne H (aka Mom) has finished her second small quilt for the Mennonite Relief Auction quilt. This one features three Masai.

Masai by Anne H, 2013 16" x 20"

Border detail with beads

Masai quilt back with quilting

Even with her broken right arm she is managing to slowly get work done. We go back to the specialist late next week to see how it is healing! At 93 it doesn't happen so quickly but we are keeping our fingers crossed that she is on the mend. If not, she has another three weeks to go in the cement brace.

I'm busy working away on Mon's Anna quilt and it is coming along nicely. A big thank you to Kath (you can visit her blog here and see a great video of her drive by Stonehenge!) who left a comment and asked how Mom and I managed to get such lovely smooth curves on the swags.

I learned how to sew using paper patterns when I was a kid and that knowledge stayed with me. I use these skills in all sorts of ways and one of them is the swag borders in the Anna H quilt. This is how Mom and I got the smooth curves on her Anna H quilt.

The first step was to determine the placement of the flower hexagons (the four hexagons at the bottom edge) because they would be the points where the swags connected. Once we had determined the correct placement these flowers were basted in place. We like to use Roxanne Glue Baste-It but you can use any method you choose.

The next step was to position the individual hexagons to form one swag between the two hexagons on the bottom edge. When we were satisfied with the arrangement they were glue basted in place.

Once the glue was set (it only takes a couple of minutes), a sheet of paper was placed over the swag making sure that the long edge of the paper was parallel with the bottom edge of the border. The lower edge of the flowers and the swag were traced with a pencil. My sheet of paper is a little wonky but if I were doing it on a border I would make sure that it was straight. The paper was then cut on the line to create the template.

You can see how the paper template fits under the original swag.

To create the next swag the template was moved to the next area where a swag was to needed and the edges of the hexagon flowers and the bottom of the border were lined up with the paper template. Then it was simply a matter of placing loose hexagons in place by lining them up with the paper template. They were then glue basted in place. Again I was doing this explanation quickly so in my haste things aren't quite lined up.

The borders were made separately and then attached to the centre panel. The corner swags were created after the borders were stitched to the centre panel. We used the same paper template method for the corners which means we arranged one swag and glued the hexagons in place. We then traced and cut out a paper template which was used on the other three corners to correctly place the hexagons.

I hope this explanation is helpful. If anything is unclear or you have questions please don't hesitate to ask! I am always more than happy to share with you.

This week's theme for Quilting Gallery's Show and Tell is Scrap Quilts. I've entered Cherry Blossom. Voting is open Friday until Monday at 6:00pm EDT. There are some stunning quilts entered and you can vote for up to six of them here. I'm still working away on the pattern for Cherry Blossom and will have it ready for you as soon as I can!

It is still beastly hot here and it will be for another day or two. But I still managed a quick tour of the garden and here's what's what today!