Seminole quilt borders

Sometimes, once a quilt top is finished, all we want to do is add a plain border or two. Many times they frame the quilt top very nicely, but a pieced border can add something special. Pieced borde…

Seminole patchwork tutorial- learn how to enhance a design with rainbow fabric.

“Created by the Native Americans of southern Florida, Seminole strip piecing is based on a simple form of decorative patchwork. Seminole strip piecing has uses in quilts, wall hangings, and traditiona

A few months ago I promised I'd show more information about making simple seminole patchwork bands of on point squares. These strips are all the same, the outer ones are cut 2" wide, and the inner ones are cut 1-1/2" wide, and sewn together with a 1/4" seam, The seams are pressed toward the outer edges. When cut crosswise 1-1/2" wide, staggered and sewn together you get a band of on point squares. If you make the outer strips contrasting colors, you get something that looks different. But…

Hello Everyone, Today I'm going to show you how to make this ribbon border which will be framing my Peek-a-Boo Pumpkins. I started by making 32 (HST) half-square triangles. I make my HST eight at a time using an easy method. You can watch this method by clicking HERE and viewing my video on The Quilt Show. There is a lot of information in my Patchwork Math videos. To soak it all in, you can watch them over and over again for free! Now that I've trimmed my HST to the correct size using a…

The fancy piano keys border increases by 1″ so it’s easily added to any size quilt. The other one increases in 6″ increments so any quilt with 6″, 12″ or 18″ blo…

One of the classes I took at Quilt Fest was from Jan Lowe on Seminole Piecing. This type of patchwork originates in South Florida with the Seminole Indians. Toward the latter part of the 1800's traders began supplying non-electric treadle sewing machines to the Seminole, and Seminole women began making intricately patterned fabric strips to decorate clothing. I am not sure how seminole patchwork made it into the quilting world but you can see the beautiful results! This quilt was made by the…

This technique is too fun not to explore it more, so I present you Part II of the Seminole Piecing tutorial. You find Part I here. Yesterday someone asked me if this technique works with ombre fabric. Of course, but you will not have such variety in color compared with a rainbow fabric. Many ombre […]

As I mentioned yesterday, I elected to Seminole piece the border for my Hen Party quilt. I did wonder, when I made the design, if I was biting off more than I could chew, but fortunately it has worked out very well! The whole key is to slow down and be very deliberate in everything you do. My border design called for 3" diamonds centred down a 6" strip. The sides of the diamonds needed to be 2 1/8", so I cut the brown strips at 2 5/8". In order for the cream edges to be wide enough, I cut…

Have you ever had your quilt blocks all pieced together, but then been totally stumped on what to do for the borders? Me too! Haha! I will show you what I came up with, and maybe it will inspire some creative ideas in you too!Last week, I was working on my first Dresden Plate quilt (you can see that post here). I made some different kind of block arrangements that are whimsical and maybe a little artsy. So when I got to the border, I had to pause (but not for long because this quilt had to…