Faux Piano Key Border

Here's a great use for wide-striped fabrics. I chose the center fabric of this little table topper because I wanted to free motion quilt around the flowers. (I don't like to practice on a scrap that I'm just going to throw away - so I make small things and practice that way.) Anyway, this seemed like the perfect, super-quick border for this mini quilt!

**The center fabric is actually more turquoise than blue. I took dozens of pictures in all kinds of light trying to show the beautiful color it really is, but it always came out blue.**


Supply list:
1 FQ floral print for center
1 FQ wide stripe for outer border
1/3 yard blue solid for inner border and binding
3/4 yd for backing
batting

Cut:
(1) 15-1/2" square from floral print - center
(4) 3-1/2" squares from floral print - corner squares
(2) 1-1/2" X 42" strips of blue solid - inner border
     sub-cut (2) 1-1/2" X 15-1/2"
                 (2) 1-1/2" X 17-1/2"
(3) 2-1/4" X 42" strips of blue solid - binding
(4) 3-1/2" X 17-1/2" strips of wide stripe - outer border

Sew (2) 15-1/2" strips of blue solid to 2 sides of the center piece; press toward blue. Sew (2) 17-1/2"  strips of blue solid to remaining 2 sides; press toward blue. See layout below:

Attach 2 outer border strips to the sides of the center block. Attach a 3-1/2" inch square to each end of the remaining two outer border strips and then sew those strips to the center block, as shown below:

Now layer the backing, batting and top for quilting:

To quilt, I free-motion stitched around the flowers and then straight-stitched along the edges of the inner border. Then I stitched, with a medium dark blue thread, down each line between the stripes. The darker thread looks like a seam.

Then I trimmed it square and added my binding! Super fast and it looks like I spent a long time sewing little strips together for that outer border. :)

It you're interested in making one of these little table toppers, we have this kit for sale on our website. Each $15 kit includes a fat quarter of the turquoise floral print, a fat quarter of the stripe, 1/3 yard blue solid and 3/4 yard of backing fabric!

You'll probably want more than one as these would make a great gift!