I am waiting for my newly purchased design wall to be hung in my sewing room before finalizing the arrangement of all those hexagons on the mask quilt (last post). I do know, however, that I want it to be queen size and by my estimation I had just enough fabric so that the hexagons cover the top of a queen size mattress with no overhang. I need to add borders to increase the size. I wanted to find borders with a feathery look to pick up the feather details in the masks but that is easier said that done. When I raided my stash I came up with these contenders.
I like that the feathery ferns of the turquoise give a sense of movement. I think the pink is perfect and it picks up the spotted look of the pink plume mask but I only have two fat quarters of it. The speckled bright green I think plays off the eyes of the peacock feathers. I bought the orange at the far right from a clearance bin and think the pattern, although not exact, really picks up on the orange plumes. Unfortunately I think the orange in the hexagons stands out on its own and does not need additional help from the border so I am leaning toward omitting orange in the border. I want a purple! Here are a couple purple alternatives from my stash with some pattern but I think they are not a blue enough purple- they lean more toward a red violet.
When I made a commando raid to my favorite quilt store to purchase a 9 degree wedge rule for my spiral table runner (a future post), I, of course, had to peruse the other options there for border fabric. Here is what I bought even though initially I was convinced that I wanted a fabric with a crisp print and not the mottled, watercolor look of batiks.
The non-crisp look can work But again I think the purple is a bit too red and the pink is a bit too red. Here is a closer look at that black and turquoise batik- sort of a wild horse. I think it is supposed to give the feel of a coral reef but I think it is quite feather-like and am strongly considering it for the outermost border. Hmm... maybe I will go back and buy more for the backing as well.
If you are still with me after all my musings then thank you for following my indecisive creative process. Also, if you have opinions on any of this, your input is welcome. I think the final decision will depend on the assembled hexagons and not just the source mask fabric.
Heh heh heh - you and I should both take the Process Pledge:
ReplyDeletehttp://r0ssie.blogspot.com/2010/05/process-pledge.html
Basically, there is a movement in the blogosphere to document exactly these types of things - not just the "look! I made a quilt!" but also the "what color should I use?" or "I can't decide between pin and Spray basting."
As for all those borders...wow! I actually really like the look of the blue-pink-green in the first photo (also, the feathery purple in the second photo and the tie-dye purple of the commando raid fabrics. Are you looking for a solid border, or is piecing the border an option? Piecing the border so that individual strips of fabric "radiate outward" would allow you to incorporate pretty much any small cuts of fabric you would like. I'm talking about something like this, but with longer strips and black sashing:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37450131@N04/5881854703/in/pool-terrainprojects#/photos/37450131@N04/5881854703/in/pool-1702583@N23/
My initial reaction to the blue wild-horse batik is that it is too much black, but then I remember that a lot of the blocks don't have any black in them, and am encouraged. I do really love the pink too, but since there's a man in the house it is probably fortunate that there isn't enough to border the whole quilt.