I've been working on a big quilting project for some time. It's a wedding quilt, a big green star, and I'm finally just about finished with the top. They requested a traditional design. I spent about 10 minutes fantasizing about a double wedding ring, then came to my senses. Even I have limits to the crazy.
I originally wanted a sawtooth border around the big star (sort of like this one). I've seen several historical quilts with that border and liked the look of the "floating" star.
I finished the middle, looked at my original design, looked at the amount of background fabric remaining, and then put the whole project aside while I figured out what to do. There wasn't enough background fabric left.
(An aside: I am terrifically bad at this behavior. I hit a place where I can't figure out what I want to go forward, and then put it away and have the regrettable tendency of not picking it back again for a long time (or ever). I wish I could find some way of working through these design blocks. I just get frustrated that it's not turning out like I wanted and despair that it ever will even look good. Then something new and shiny appears and I'm off to the next thing. Bah.
I would like to be the kind of person who actually FINISHES things. Also, when I have managed to work through the blockage (whether in the short or long term) I'm usually more pleased by the alternate design - the one I was forced to devise when constricted by supplies, or unhappiness with how things were turning out - than the original design. It's tied in with the stupid perfectionism that grows like stubborn blackberry vines in my head. I try to uproot it but it keeps coming back. /End aside.)
There was maybe enough of the background fabric to make a narrower border, but I didn't like a narrow border. I wanted something to balance out out the weight of the star. It's 86 inches square. It needs something hefty.
After scribbling a lot I thought maybe a diamond border but it reminded me too much of 80s dinner plate designs. Then more scribbling and maybe I could echo the big star with more stars in the border.
And that is how I got 24 stars and diamonds. I think I'm going to need more like 32 or 36 of them And yes, it's all green. Monochromatic quilts are hard. I've become a little tired of green.
2 comments:
The quilt-in-progress is beautiful! It will be an heirloom. (I find the clean-out-the-pantry or -refrigerator times are when I am most creative with cooking. It's fun.)
Dear Alice. This is incredibly beautiful. What a loving gift! You are so talented!
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