Swoon quilt, and a tip

I quilted this beautiful  Swoon quilt for a customer who requested an all over design.  I choose Feather Swirl, and I think it looks wonderful on this quilt.   The Swoon blocks are so large, and if you make the quilt as instructed it is 80" x  80".  A wonderful large quilt.  I know many people are making single blocks, and smaller blocks, and smaller quilts.  It is a beautiful design, and so many possibilities.

Well, here is a simple tip for dividing a border into equal sections.  This tip is not new, but maybe there is someone who hasn't used it for quilting, or for borders, and it is helpful, and easy.

 It is all about dividing a border.  I really struggle with math, always have, and always will.  Okay, so I compensate.  I wanted to divide this border into even sections to do a quilting design,  Sort of a cathedral window thing that I will show in next post.  The actual size of each design did not have to be exact, they just all had to be the same.  So, the border was 43" long,  For me, that doesn't divide well.  Say I wanted eight divisions, well that comes out to 5.37"  Way too confusing, what is .37"  I have no idea.  So, I took a strip of adding machine paper, cut it the length of the border, folded in half, half again, and again, until the size looked about right.  Unfolded it, placed it on the border to check it out, and each fold defined the distance between designs.

folds in paper define areas for each design

I marked the folds with pen, then ironed the strip of paper so it would lay flat, and marked the divisions in my border.  I use this method all the time to find the center of a space, just lay a paper the width of the area, fold in half, and there you go.

Paper strip divided , marked and ironed to lay flat

I am working on the quilt in the example, and having so much fun with it.  It is a great afternoon for quilting, listening to my audio book, and enjoying the day.  Have a great weekend, and happy stitching.