WIP Wednesday - Checkerboard & Hearts Border Baby Quilt

I'm still working on hexies, they are not finished yet though I now have a cloud to go with my kite, some flowers and a bee!  But I decided to take a break from them and make up the first border on my medallion quilt for the MQG of Ireland Medallion-A-Long.  The guidelines from Catbird Quilts for the first border is to have it maximum 4" so with my dimensions of 18 x 24 three seemed a good number.


So I cut strips 2" wide in the pale pink and blue from some fat quarters of Tailored by Annette Tatum.  Cut them 2" wide and made 12 for the top and bottom border and 16 for the sides.

 For the corners I had the idea to add a heart.  As they are 3.5" unfinished, 3" when sewn in, I thought some of the corner pieces that define a heart shape would be very small so the easiest way to make them would be to paper piece them.  My first attempt was a little too angular and not quite heart shaped so I modified the top a little (bottom heart on the picture) and was much better.

I sewed the squares into 4 patches and here they are so far.

The border is not yet sewn into the background fabric and I need to sew on my hexagon shapes and add some grass for the flowers but getting there!

I need to remake the bottom heart as it was made with template #1 and I should have just enough to do it.  I was a little worried I'd run out of fabric on this border. Medallions use a lot more than you would initially think! Then again there lots of seams in this chequerboard but I like the effect.  

The template I made from EQ5 is here if anyone wants to make 3" hearts!
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