Project 4 Triple Rail Fence - Borders

I really like quilting borders.  The length gives me a chance to get into a nice flowing rhythm, unlike the simple blocks I've been doing which are stop/start, stop/start.  Then again, the part of quiltmaking I dislike is border marking.  Trying to manage a quilt across a small lightbox is tricky and the results (for me at least) are never straight.

Freezer paper is only available from quilting stores here - supermarkets don't stock it.  So I ordered some online and added a roll of Golden Threads Quilting Paper.  I thought it may be just the thing for marking borders.

The blurb on the quilting paper says you simply trace your design onto the paper, pin it to the quilt top, then when finished just tear it away.  Sounds good to me.  You can also needlepunch your design on - up to 15 layers at a time - just sew through the design with a large unthreaded needle.  If you want you can pounce through the needleholes directly onto the fabric.

So I thought I'd give it a shot.  Being a beginner, I decided to trace the 4 corners and borders individually, instead of risking 4 wobbly needlepunched stencils. 

The quilting paper comes on a 20 yard roll

I traced the corners separately

Pinned to the top and ready to go!

After the 1st border, I was ready to chuck it.  Really, it moved and crunched up and the noise!  Crackle, crunch, crackle.  Despite being able to see the lines really clearly, I managed to mess up and sewed the wrong lines - this was because I had to pin the corners to a short piece then to a long piece and it all shifted.

By the time I got to the last border I had it sorted and it quilted up quickly and easily.  On the plus side, the lines are easy to see, but on the minus side, it just seemed weird.  Oh and my needle unthreaded umpteen times, which drove me crazy.  I think an experienced quilter may like this, but for me, I don't think I'm ready for it.

Borders quilted through paper - weird!

Then it was time to take the paper off.  The blurb on the roll states "tears away cleanly and easily" "to remove paper from quilting, gently tug fabric on the bias and the paper will break away from the stitches, making it easy to tear away".  This well may be true if you are quilting straight lines an inch or two apart.  Have a look at those tiny squares in the picture - the paper did not pop off these from a gentle tug!

It took longer to get the paper off than it would have taken to hand mark the borders

I was reluctant to tug on the bias, due to the fact that my borders were already wavy.  I did give it a go though, and the paper on the outside came away from the stitching easily.  Getting it off the inside lines and out of those little squares was another matter.  I had to scrape it off with a fingernail.  Admittedly, it did come away from the stitching cleanly, but a gentle tug was not going to do it.  I think it would have been quicker just to trace the border over the lightbox, than to mess around for ages getting the paper off!

Here it is, nearly all done - I've discovered binding clips - love 'em!

From the back

A close up of the quilting from the back

There you go - a jerky heart from where the quilt got hung up - I knew I wouldn't get away with not showing a dodgy one!

Now this quilt has wavy borders, sad mitered corners, jerky quilting and tiny bits of paper stuck in the stitching but you know, I like it.  I seem to have grown more attached to it, the more it caused me stress.  I'm going to claim this one for myself :)