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Planning a Quilt

© Jeanne Walsh

Let's say the bathroom really needs some spicing up. Something quick and easy. No major overhaul here, just something interesting. But what? What about a wall hanging? But there is very little wall space. Let's measure and see what it really is.

That is just what one of my clients did - - and then she had a bright idea. She gave me a call. Would I be up to planning a wall hanging to complement the floor covering in her bath, and to fit the available wall space? I can trust Kathleen to come up with gorgeous color so I agreed to give it a try.

In a few days here she came, full of enthusiasm. She was bringing her 3rd grade daughter to dance lessons and was taking advantage of the trip to Seward to plan the wall hanging. She brought a sample of the floor covering and a pile of fabrics.

The first big surprise was the measurements of the project. It could be no wider than 24 inches, but it could be up to 52 inches long. She had found a magazine picture she liked of a small quilt, probably about 54 x 54. She wanted some elements of that quilt to appear in the planned wall hanging. The catch here was she wanted three borders. The pattern in the rug (the leaf) that she wanted duplicated was at least six inches across. My thoughts were racing. "Three borders? on each side? and a six inch leaf with sashing? Only 24 inches wide?"

I thought, "Now, just relax! We can work this out!"

Going through the stack of fabrics, we labeled each piece as to where Kathleen wanted it to be placed. This one for the outer border, this one for the next border, this one for sashing, the light for background, and the rest for leaves. She indicated she wanted 12 leaves. She thought 3 across would be a nice balance. We decided I would have a sample of the leaf block by the next dance lesson day.

A few days later, when I settled down to sketch out the tentative plan, I ran into trouble immediately on the six inch leaf AND sashing AND 3 borders. Way, way too wide! I had thought to concentrate first on the leaf block. I could now see I needed to figure borders first in order to determine the space left (only 24 inches total remember)for the leaf blocks and sashing. I came up with 1 1/2 inches finished for the outer border and first inner border, that was six inches of the width gone already. No room for a third border? Probably not.

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