The side borders are on and I am stitching the details of the waves and lotus blossoms which go out over the border today. Val took this photo at Wrexham Quilting Circle's meeting last night.
Once these details are finished (probably tomorrow), I'll be able to sew the top and bottom borders (the same striped tsumugi kimono cotton) and will baste it next week. I am going to use a black Hobbs Polydown wadding and give it just enough hand quilting to hold all the layers in place and give the figure & fish a slightly 3-D effect. I got a great jacquard backing fabric, woven in blue and white, from Fabrics Galore when I was at the National Quilt Championships - wide enough to do the backing without any seams, and the weave will camouflage the border sashiko stitches very effectively on the back.
In the end, it was just as easy to draw the waves and blossoms freehand into the border, with the A4 drawing as a guide...
Once the layers are tacked, I am going to mark a grid across the narrow (5mm) stripes and stitch hitomezashi sashiko in the border, very much as my friend Reiko Domon does. It will give a nicely defined frame effect to the whole piece and the stripes will be less dominant behind the hitomezashi.
Everything (fingers crossed) is on track for Festival of Quilts!
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