Work on Love Entwined Wed 5th Feb

Hi Everyone.
Have had 3 days off and working on my second border has been my top priority now that my first border is finished and am  happy with it. The 15th is going to be here before we know it and I would like to have my second border completed by then as well.

On Monday I pressed the seam allowances away and positioned my border close to how it should sit onto the center.

You can see why I am happy with how it turned out, but the more I have looked while working on border two something has jumped out at me.

There is a new floral shape forming, at least it is in my mind!!!!

If I had seen this earlier maybe my flower basket wouldn't have my kimono flowers, but be stronger. 

I am glad I didn't pick it as I love them, but will now be looking for the right accent for each side of the vase as to me it is becoming another corner and will need Esther's detail. 

The original maker of our coverlet had to be a master designer, Esther I thank you  for your wonderful interpretation which I am loving more with each stage. 

I know most people are hand stitching, but if you are new to the group and machine stitching like me you might find the following useful as I have taken photo's of how I prepared my second border.
I do it very differently from hand sewers.

After joining  my paper pattern together and checking the measurements were correct I marked and cut it with a quarter inch seam allowance. Also marked on the pattern my placement line for my fused borders, as you can see the border will cover them completely.

Pressed the center line of my fabric in both directions and also the pattern center.

Line these up and pin the pattern onto the fabric which has been cut with excess all around.

I have used photo editing to enhance the lines on my fabric for clarity and they are slightly off.

The grey line will be my final cutting line with seam allowance. IF there is any shrinkage from the applique it will still be inside my seam allowance.

The red line is my marking line for the applique border placement and becomes completely covered by the border.

I start fusing outwards from the center, only touching a top or bottom corner with the iron to hold them at this stage until I have a perfect fit. Then I can ensure the center line is perfect as I fuse each piece into place.

Zigzag border stitched into place.

I never usually think about how long it takes me to stitch by machine but this time I decided to see how long a border like this takes. My fabric was marked out and my zigzags were precut weeks ago so the paper backing's fell off easily.  Half an hour to fuse the applique pieces into place.

Another half hour to stitch the 35" inner side, then 45 mins to stitch the outer side as had to straight stitch in and zigzag back out at every join. Border complete in one and three quarter hours.

Exactly the same for my .Dutch Pixies. I love this name for them, it is so fitting.
I start at the center and just touch the tip of each cone with the iron to hold it while I position it, then work back adding their clogs and fusing each in place as I go. Can't use full heat as my gold frays and my dark burgundy melts with a hot iron. So I need to stitch this as soon as possible.

I thought for a while before stitching this border as I really HATE Start, Stop and tie off, and I could see this happening if I stitched each "Pixie" individually.
So a bit like chain piecing, I stitch along one side and then the other. It has taken me an hour to stitch one side, those clogs are very slow going as I have to move my fabric every couple of stitches.
I am never watching machine time again, Lol.
But, I would love to know how long it takes a hand sewer to stitch this border.You have far more patience than me, I am sure of that.
I need to go back and spend another hour at my machine to stitch the other side, so am linking to Esther's blog now.
Enjoy your Wednesday everyone.
Cheers Jenny.