End of Spring Break

It was wonderful having Teri and Lauren here for Spring Break.  It is always so quiet around the house after they leave. Teri and I got a lot of great projects done, or well along the way during their stay.  We had fun making Convergence quilts.  Here are instructions if you want to put the Convergence on the point.  I think Teri is going to do that with her's.  I think I am going to finish mine straight up.

1. Square up the Convergence. There are some uneven edges to trim off.  Also, the piece will not be square  (remember we had to cut on either side of the seam half way through - so there is no way it can be the same height and width).  Trim the quilt so that it is square.
2. Add a small border to "seal off" the Convergence.  I used a 1 inch strip so the tiny border will be 1/2 inch. Here you can see the piece with the borders on 2 sides.  See how the small dark border really brings closure to the pattern.

With the dark small border on all sides it really shows off the Convergence.
3. Check the outside measurement of your piece.  The one that I made is now 27 3/4 inches by 27 3/4 inches.   
4. Now you need to determine the size of the pieces (that will be 2 squares cut on the diagonal) to cut for the triangle corners if you are going to put this on the point. Lay your piece on the cutting mat (it is helpful when you have a large mat). I mentally drew an imaginary 45 degree line.  You will see from the picture below that the pieces went from the 20 inch mark to the 20 inch mark. 
5. To calcualte the size of the square you need to cut you need to make it larger than the 20 inches (and every time I do this it seems that the size of square needed is larger that one first thinks - so cut it larger and trim later - believe me it is worth it!)
6. I recommend cutting two 22 inch squares.  When working with a batik (which are usually wider) you  should be able to get two 22 inch squares.  In this case you DO NOT have to trim off the selvage ahead of time because you will be trimming later. This is especially true with most batiks that do not have that ugly white selvage.

7. Once you have cut the two squares, cut them in half on the diagonal so you have 4 triangles.  As you work with these triangle pieces keep in mind that the long side is now the bias and it will "want" to stretch.  The best advice is to handle it carefully - and as you handle it think about "keeping it in its original shape" as opposed to smoothing things out.  Once you have it sewn to the Convergence  you will have straight grain on the edges so the tricky part is just gettting the piece sewn to the Convergence.
8. You definitely want the piece to be larger than you Convergence, as shown below.  You will trim AFTER you get the 4 corners sewn on.

9. When pinning the triangle to the Convergence find the half way point on the trinagle and the Convergence and match those points - so that you center the trinagle on the Convergend.
10. After have sewn all 4 sides, press and then trim.  As you trim be sure that you have left enough so that when you have the seam (that you need when you put on the outside border) the corner of the skinny border comes out nice.
11.  Apply your outer border.
12.  Quilt and bind.