Cutting it a Little Close

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I just finished piecing a quilt top that will be a wedding gift for friends late next month. I didn’t measure my fabric beforehand, I didn’t cut all of my pieces out before I started. I didn’t even have a final plan for the quilt border. To be honest most of that involves math. Doing it well involves Algebra…and in all honesty, I was in the back of the class reading a novel for most of the year. Little did I know it would come back to bite me in the end. I pieced the main part of the quilt and then decided I wanted a “piano key” border made up of 2.5-inch strips. I planned for a 5-inch wide border knowing that if I didn’t have enough fabric to go all the way around the perimeter I could always cut the 5-inch border down to 2.5 inches and have a border of squares instead. I cut, I sewed, I pinned. The last strip required some cheating as I pieced together 3 small bits to make the final 2.5 x 5-inch rectangle. Phew. Now I just needed to come up with four 5x5 inch cornerstones to finish the quilt. Hmmm. I was down to little strips and off-cuts. So I made miniature versions of the string-heart potholders I made earlier this month. I don’t have a photo of the finished quilt top because it is too large to spread out anywhere in my house (unless I move all the furniture in our great room) and it was too wet to take it outside). Maybe I’ll post it when it is completely finished.