SAHRR Border 3

It’s Monday, and time to share my SAHRR Border 3. I hope you’ve had a chance to check out the variety of quilts being made for this year’s Stay at Home Round Robin. There are so many creative quilters in our group!

Quilting Gail is our host this week, and she’s got us seeing – or thinking – stars. Be sure to head to her blog and read her post for more instructions about this week’s border. For those of you who may not know, Gail is the founder of this sew along, and she does a super job of keeping her co-hosts moving forward with planning this event and making it happen each year. Thanks so much, Gail!

So this week you will link up over at Gail’s blog. Here is the schedule once again so you can keep track of where we are at, and go to the other hosts and see their star borders.

• January 13:   See the center blocks here! .
• January 20: 1^st Round:   Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing
• January 27: 2^nd Round: Anja @ Anja Quilts 
• February 3: 3^rd Round: Gail @ Quilting Gail  – Link up with Gail this week!
• February 10: 4^th Round: Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life
• February 17: 5^th Round: Brenda @ Songbird Designs
• February 24: 6^th Round: Emily @ The Darling Dogwood
• March 24:  Parade: showing all of your finished SAHRRs!

Oh my stars! I remember my grandmother and aunts using this phrase when they were amazed or perplexed by something. That phrase came to me several times while I was working on this week’s border, and not because I was amazed – haha. I knew exactly what I wanted to do, so this was going to be an easy border. My plan was to make wonky stars, because I enjoy making them. Keep in mind that my borders up to this point have been 2.5 inches wide, so I set out making little stars. The wonky stars were so tiny that the star points faded into the background. I stubbornly did not want to make a larger block, but finally decided to settle on a 3-inch border/block (finished).

Okay, so not wonky stars. How about Friendship Stars? I tried that, and had the same issue because my fabrics were all in medium values. You can see what I mean in this photo.

Oh my stars! They just don’t pop like I wanted them too. Then I thought I might make some of the Friendship Star blades in a black print, so they would stand out and also give a little nod to the black in the center block. Nope, that didn’t work either. Wilbs lost interest in all my muttering.

So I tried another approach, and this one worked okay. Honestly, I don’t love this border, but I think it will grow on me.

I sketched out a star, fused them to 3.5 inch squares and did some quick raw edge applique. The dark navy, not black, corner squares give a nod to the center square. The red and orange strips help the stars pop. (It didn’t occur to me until the wee hours of the morning that I could’ve made the Friendship stars using a different background – duh. By then it was too late, I needed to get this border done.)

I haven’t added the coping border yet, but will do that later this week. I’m keeping my options open in case I decide to change out the stars (unlikely, because I hate ripping – haha).

Okay – your turn to dance with the stars! Have fun, and don’t forget to link up this week over at Quilting Gail. I’m looking forward to seeing your SAHRR Border 3 creativity!

Wendy