This geometric border design really balances the heaviness of the urns and the softness of the flowers. What do you think? Would you make the geometric border or the leaf border? Let me know in the comments.
Border Design
April 23, 1932
There was great excitement in the Nancy Page quilt club. The last block had been seamed into the quilt. Here it was in all its glory. Flowers, urns and birds were all arranged in orderly sequence. And wasn’t it pretty? You never hear so many “oh’s” and ah’s”. Each member liked certain blocks of her own better than anyone else’s, and each member found a block or two in a neighbor’s quilt which she wanted to put into her own.
And now came the question of the border. The quilt was planned for a finished size of 90 by 108 inches. This is generous on any double bed. It allows a good hang-over at sides and end and a generous tuck in under pillows with enough to spare to cover the pillow like the old-fashioned sham.
If 90 by 108 seems too large, and anyone can tell by spreading a sheet of o known size over the bed and seeing how much hang-over it allows – then the border may be made smaller.
Nancy planned to make her border with a strip of white (2-1/2 inches), then a pieced strip of white and the urn color (3 inches), a strip of white (2-1/2 inches), and then an outer band of urn color (3 inches). She did not plan to scallop the edges, since the general feeling of the urns is one of geometrically and regularly arranged straight pieces. The straight stripe may be mitered at the corners. But since the corner square of pieced patches is not mitered it seems wiser to tear the strips of such a length that they reach from top to bottom of quilt, letting the end and top pieces of the first or inner strip be of same size as pieced centre of quilt.
Nancy tore two strips (A and B) of white for each side, for each end, both top and bottom. These are A’ and B’ on pattern. In every case these were one-half inch larger than the finished strip was to be. This allowed for seams.
In cutting the blocks – 2 and 1′, 2 and 3 – she used the patterns as given in today’s paper, always allowing one-quarter inch on all sides for seams. The pattern is worked out for 90 by 108 inch quilt. Be sure to start border of corners and work toward centre, to get true and exact corners.
There were other borders which different members used. Frances used a strip of urn color, then white, and then urn color. She had these of equal width. Dorothy used the leaf border given during the past summer. This called for a wide strip of green – she had used a green urn throughout the quilt – for the outermost edge joined to an equally wide strip of white which bordered or framed the pieced centre of quilt.
At regular intervals the green and white were decorated with appliqued leaves of green and white. A green and a white leaf on the green strip, and a white leaf on the green strip. They were most effective. Each member worked out her own scheme, as was said before – and each member admired the efforts of the others.
And now came the quilting. And did they discuss what quilting patterns should be used? They did. Next week we will listen to their discussions. All the members cut out today’s patterns and pasted them in their Nancy Page quilt scrapbook. That book was certainly a treasure trove.
“Garden bouquet quilt, border design” Newspapers.com, Edmonton Journal, April 23, 1932, https://www.newspapers.com/article/edmonton-journal-garden-bouquet-quilt-b/164030510/
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