Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Think ahead

The living room floor is there when the design wall gets too small, but next time I'll think ahead before I lay out the blocks and try to avoid the table!
It was still dark when I came downstairs this morning so the quilt was essentially in grey scale -- like looking at a black and white photo. Sounds crazy that this would help when looking at a black and white quilt, but it did! (Maybe it was just being away for a few hours that had the effect.) So I've rearranged a few blocks since I took this photo last night, but you get the idea.

Here's the plan -- a narrow border in color, then a wider border in tone-on-tone black (the one used in those little black cornerstones), and then a big zag zag all around. I'm thinking ahead and welcome your suggestions before I start cutting and stitching. Here's a drawing of my layout so you'll know what I'm talking about.


1) Inner border. Should the inner border be one fabric? If so, I'll probably do some shade of red. I was thinking of doing lots of colors, but I'm not sure whether that will just look sloppy here. I think the eye may need a place to rest. There will be a black border next to it, but multiple colors may be too chaotic on what is already a pretty chaotic quilt.

2) Zig Zag background. I plan to do the zig zag in brights and the question is whether for the background I want to do mixed blacks and whites (like in the center of the quilt) or choose only fabrics that are more black than white. I'm leaning towards that now, and will be sure that the brights stand out against it. Thoughts?

And I loved my word of the day -- acnestis. It means "the part of the body where one cannot reach to scratch." Who knew there was such a word?

12 comments:

Staceyface said...

I've always wanted to do a black/white/color quilt... your border idea is good just to jazz it up a bit. I can't wait to see it finished!!!

Trisha said...

Love zigzag borders! Great idea for this quilt!

Clare said...

One colour for the inner border otherwise you're going to have too much for the eye to look at and you'll end up going dizzy :-)

I'd also go for the one colour black for the zig zag's - again you need somethign for the eye to rest on after the centre.

BUT it is your quilt so do what you think is best.

Readersraisinghell said...

I love your "word of the day"! Where do you find them? How fun! It would be right up there with my daily Writer's Almanac experience! One of my most fun things in the morning is getting out of bed and getting the "gift" of the Writer's Almanac. Sounds like the "word of the day" could be another gift!

stitchinpenny said...

I think a solid red inner border and the tone on tone black will make the the center of the quilt much more prominent and let it do the talking. In my opinion the center doesn't need any thing to allow it to be interesting or complete, so the borders are merely outlines to highlight.

Jocelyn said...

I agree with the single color, and I LOVE this quilt!!

Beena said...

The quilt looks great in progress! I'm sure whatever you decide will be wonderful!

Kathy Raker said...

Love what you have done so far with your quilt. Big decision concerning the borders. I like the idea of red inner border. For the zig zag I think one black tone on tone for the background would keep your eye more focused on the colorful blocks.

Julie Zaccone Stiller said...

I love it! The zig-zag final border sounds like a great idea. I like the idea of a more tone on tone black for the background of the zig zag.

em's scrapbag said...

I love red in borders and think it is a good idea to stick with one color. The zig zag is a great idea. I agree predomanately black with the zig zag colors will look great. What an awesome quilt.

Unknown said...

I'm really liking this clean and simple design. I have a sampler pack of fabric that would lend itself to this sort of treatment very nicely. Hmmmm

Leah said...

oh this quilt looks so cool! can't wait to see the finished product!