Ready to take the plunge...

The first appliqued outer border strip for "Baltimore Rhapsody" is all stitched up and ready to plunge in water to soak the glue out.

I prepped more than I had time to work on in Alabama...big surprise.  (I always pack quilting projects like I am going to a deserted island for a week...I WISH!)

I am liking the swags with the holes in them.  They take a little longer to applique down due to the additional edges to secure down.

The effort is worth it.  The last swag border I did (on the wall above the couch) poofs out, caused by the compression of the batting from all the hand quilting that surrounds the swags.  That has always bugged me.  Since I will be hand quilting inside these little swag cut-outs or vents, my swags won't be poofy.  YIPPEE!

Three more outer borders to go...

In stitches,
Teresa  :o)

Some outer border resolution...

OK, so I have finally made some sort of decision about the outer borders of "Baltimore Rhapsody."  I will stitch one of the border strips, and see if it is truly what I want.

I will use F clefs in the corners, in a heart motif.  THAT I will figure out after I get the four long strips done.  I am really liking the swags with the holes in them.  The G clefs are a little intense...and I have to make 24 of them...oy!  Fortunately, I have 148 leftover purple circles, so I hopefully don't have to make more of them!

In stitches,
Teresa  :o)

What I did during Downton...

Well, I am trying a plan "B" idea for a swag border.  I really love the plan "A" roman knot...maybe because it is fast and I get to start quilting sooner, LOL.

To make sure that is NOT my motivation, I thought I would mess around with one appliqued border to see if that is truly where my lazy heart lies.  

I thought I would make the swags look like "cut work" - maybe because I was watching Downton Abbey and looking at Violet's lace hankie.  Have you ever seen swags with holes in them - I think I made it up, but after looking at MILLIONS of quilts in books, magazines, museums, and the Internet, one never knows...

I managed to trace and cut up a lot of freezer paper during that nice, long episode.  (Thank God, nothing to cry about in this one...all those tears and nose blows make it hard to get anything done!).

I am still messing around with the block setting.  I've been considering with the suggestion of putting the conductor in the bottom left corner and trying to arrange the other blocks in some sort of "orchestra order." It's not easy with a square/diagonal setting, when the orchestra is a semi-circle, but here goes nothing...I got out all my little paper bits again...

This one is as close to the real deal, the real order as I could get.  Really, the timpani should be beyond the trombone, but just not possible in this setting.  To me, the bottom row is way too heavy with dark objects. I modified it a bit to get the piano off the bottom (after all...it is only a concerto instrument and not normally in the orchestra line up...).

OK...this is weighted better, and I like how the woodwinds are right, plum in the center where they should be (flute next to oboe on one row, and clarinet next to bassoon on the next).  But the angles of the long, skinny instruments bother me.

OK, maybe that is better.  My daughter is off from school AGAIN (snow day? really? WE didn't get the blizzard...I think someone just wanted a 4-day weekend...) and walked by and noticed that I really could turn the oboe 90 degrees and not hurt the integrity of the block.  Ah, young, fresh eyes...

So, back to the quilt cave to delve deeper...

In stitches,
Teresa  :o)