Alex's quilt went together so easily. The cutting and piecing were pretty simple, yet the finished flower block is so cute. Borders were next. The blue inner border was easy enough. The pink outer border was a whole different matter. The fabric is tricky. There are clusters of flowers, about the size of a hand, scattered on the fabric, so I didn't want to just haphazardly cut and sew. I carefully examined the fabric and saw that the clusters were positioned in near rows down the length of the fabric. (I had bought enough fabric to cut the borders from the length to avoid joining seams.) Across the 40-42 inch width of fabric were 4 1/2 rows. (Why is there always a half? At least it wasn't 3 1/2 though) The rows were 8-9 inches wide, and my border needed 6 inch wide strips, so I centered the 6 inches over the row as best as I could. I cut the first row. Of the 4 rows, there were two identical pairs--all 4 were not the same. I carefully lined up the first one I had cut on top of it's matching pair to cut an identical 6" border strips. These would be the top and bottom. I cut another strip from the third row, and an identical mate from the last row to use for the 2 sides of the quilt. I determined an identical center point in all four strips--the white center of the orange flower.
I sewed on the borders, mitering the corners, and this is how it came out. I'm pretty satisfied with the borders, but I'm not liking the way the miters are meeting. I really have problems with "half flowers." Now I'm thinking of making corner squares, but what color? Green would work, but I think I'd like more of the purple fabric better. The only problem I can see is that I set one of the purple flower blocks in a corner and I'm not sure I'd like a purple border corner there so near.
While pondering all my options, and carefully studying things, now I'm not sure I like the orange and yellow flowers. They were fabrics in the same line as the border, and they match perfectly, I just don't like how "strong" they are--they don't look like they belong. Ugh! This quilt was supposed to be easy!
Here is how it would look with corner squares. I'm trying out both the purple and green. I placed the purple by the purple flower block. I'm not sure how I'm liking it. What do you think?
first of all, you're nuts! this is an adorable quilt so i'd leave all the blocks intact. if you want to put something in the corners of the border how about repeating the pinwheel from the center of the blocks?
ReplyDeleteI think its a darling quilt! I think Joan's idea of pinwheels in the corners would look really pretty too.
ReplyDeleteI have not gone ahead to read but I love the yellow and orange. They pop and give a fun element to the quilt. I love a field of wild flowers where every once in awhile you see a few that just glow. Either way it is a beautiful quilt. I do like the idea of a cornerstone block and will be curious to read on to see what you decided on.
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