Saturday, January 25, 2014

Interviewing fabrics

I'm interviewing fabrics for the border on the  dashes quiltlet.  It's big enough for either a table topper OR for a baby blanket!

Regardless - this is the way it was....
I like it - and had originally intended that it NOT have a border.  BUT maybe it's because I've been concentrating on borders for a bit, BUT I think it needs a border!  BADLY!  Not really a fancy border (although I AM making some small cornerstones for it!)

Question is - what color!

I don't have any more of the blender purple.  And when I tried to add another go-with purple- this is what I ended with....
It makes a definite statement - BUT.... altogether it overwhelms the quiltlet in its darkness!

I thought of PINK - which I do love, btw, but if I decide to turn this into a baby quilt - my son would have a cat fit (no relation to Scrappy cat sitting beside the quiltlet!) if I gave it to them for a son!  and besides I'm out of pink!

Finally I decided on multiple borders...  the first being either a WOW (made the white in the flowers look drab and dirty!) or an unbleached muslin - and may just have enough for an 1-inch border all around.  Then I re-interviewed pink - nyet!  I tried green - um, it was ok - but outside of not having really enough of the green it still made the quiltlet darker than I would like!  Sooooo - because there is just a hint of yellow in the flower pictures, I interviewed 2 yellows.  Not much would be showing - no more than just a tiny strip - but one is more golden than the other.  

So - what for the outside????  Well - something you may or may not have realized.... there are 2 flower fabrics there!  One is with the larger pink roses and one is with the tinier purple viney flowers (which I do NOT know the name of!)....

As a rule I like to put a darker fabric on the outside to make your eye be drawn more towards the lighter center of the quilt.  And a lighter purple just would NOT do!  BUT an exception to that is when I use one of the focal fabrics in the quilt - divided of course, by mini borders, so you have that tiny bit of break there!

So now, pre-viewing each of the fabrics mentioned....

Flower/Rose outer border with golden yellow strip and UB muslin

Viney outer border with golden yellow strip and UB muslin

Rosey outer border with a bright yellow strip and UB muslin

Viney outer border with bright yellow strip and UB muslin
So - what do you think?  Although when I was taking the pictures I was about equally in love with all the possibilities - right now I am thinking of the rosey outer border.  As for the strip - um, I like bright colors - but not sure but what the golden would be the better choice.  Regardless, DEFINITELY the unbleached muslin!

And, of course, what was I SUPPOSED to be doing?  Getting ready to machine quilt up a storm on those table runners!  LOL


8 comments:

Michele McLaughlin said...

Hi Helen, caught ya on stashbuster. I actually like the first border you showed (purple with black lines) because it is dark enough to draw your eyes inward. I think that would work best (to me) but that is just my vote. I don't think it overwhelms the quilt--which by the way is lovely! Have a wonderful day! Mickie in snowy Pennsylvania

Podunk Pretties said...

So many choices and each beautiful. I too like the dark, but.... what if you did a solid white then the darker purple for the last outer border. You could even throw in a triple with the golden yellow in between the dark purple and gold.

roccagal said...

I like #3 best!

Cher said...

I'm leaning towards the purple flower/yellow strip/unbleached muslin myself..love the pop of yellow!

Dayquilt said...

How about muslin first, the the dark purple, then floral (my vote is the roses) then dark purple binding?

dinaf said...

I like the rose border w/o any stripe!

Quilter Kathy said...

I like the flower rose border on it's own

Nann said...

Rose flower border. It will make the purple units in the blocks float.

Followers