Desi Quilters Foundation Piecing QAL 2012 - Part 3 Hope you are ready with the mitered corner center block..

Open the border pieces file and take a print out. It is my kind of piano key border. Cut each strip at the dotted lines and get ready for border piecing.

We need bits of 2” squares for this step and you can use all the bits and pieces from your center blocks. I have used only four colours for the border because my 5th colour was running short, so decided to manage with 4 colour…you can decide your own border colours too. The border names start from E to L and use the suffix number for piecing.

I will repeat the first few steps with few pictures….it is all the same like the center block. So look back to part 1 if you have any doubt. Image 37 is similar to image 1 of part 1

image 38 is similar to image 2 of part 1

Image 39 is similar to image 7 of part 1

Hope you could start the border piecing without any confusion.. Please feel free to ask me if you are stuck…I am always happy to help you. Image 40 is the progress of border piecing…I am using chain-piecing technique so it goes slightly faster.

When you finish piecing your borders it will look like image 41

Trim it and keep it ready to attach to the center block. You need to attach strip E and F, G and H , I and J, K and L before you attach it to the center block. Image 42 shows how G and H is going to meet. Attach it with G and H, fabric side facing with G11 end and H1 end…do the same for all the strips…

We need to attach 4, 2” squares corner to 2 border strips too, before we attach the border to the center block. I decided to use EF border and JK border to attach the corners. Leave 2 border strips without corner squares.

Image 44 shows the attached border without corner square border

Attach border with corner square to the other side, then it will look like image 45

Do the same for other 2 borders….After fixing 4 borders, your block will look like image 46..

That’s it…your block will look like image 47 from the back side

Now you can remove all the foundation papers…Press it with your iron, trim out all hanging threads and make it ready to quilt…You can choose hand quilting or machine quilting. When you finish quilting, you can decide how to finish. If you are finishing it to a pillow cover, stitch the backing before you do binding. If it is a wall hanging, do not forget to fix a sleeve for it…..or leave it as it is and bind it with bias tape for a table topper. … Now you can be proud of your foundation-pieced quilted finish … Thank you for being with me. Hope you enjoyed this QAL and I’m sure you will be motivated to try more complicated patterns in future… It’s all the same …Piece by number….Good Luck.