thanks, all! I did figure out a border idea, and will even be able to incorporate an antique block I was given, made by a great-grandmother that I never met (it was made by my grandpa's mom, but she died when he was a toddler). My grandparents are heavily featured in my quilt squares, and it was this great-grandmother who saved the KCS blocks/patterns in her paper, which my grandpa now has and my grandma has been scanning and emailing to family. I used a few of the KCS patterns as blocks in this quilt, so will be very special to have this block done by her in my quilt as well.

The quilt it came from belonged to my grandparents, but they had a house fire some years ago and the 3 quilts (by her) which they had, were burnt. My stepmom recently repaired/restored 1 of them, and this block is a left-over from that project -- she had to completely take apart the quilt, create new blocks to go with it, and reassemble it. She had a block leftover that didn't fit in the new layout, I got that, and into my quilt it will go as part of the border. I'm very pleased with the idea, and glad I sat and pondered a while before starting on borders!

Will post a photo when I get that part done; it's on the schedule for today. Thanks for all the encouragement!

I don't know if you can still get the book, but I still refer to Mary Ellen Hopkin's book "It's Ok if You Sit on My Quilt". She has simple directions for constructing all sizes/types of blocks and settings. It's a great book to have for reference. By the way, RIP Mary Ellen. You inspired me and made me the quilter I am today. "Every red goes with every other red." MEH.

Geneva in Northern California

Heather your quilt looks lovely. I am sure you will come up with a great border for it. Just in case you haven't come across it I just wanted to point you to Bonnie K. Hunter's blog where she has some fantastic tips and techniques, including a list of sizes for the squares you need to cut to create on point setting triangles and corners. Here's a link:

http://quiltville.blogspot.ie/2005/06/on-point-quilts.html

I love on point settings because they are more interesting. And I have done every single mistake you've done! Is the name for this one "An exercise in frustration?"

magnus wrote:
ooh, that's a good idea, Jeanine! thanks!

I'm pulling scraps now and trying to figure what I want to do.....think I'll take the whole pile to my room where I can play "design wall" on the bed, free from dog hair, and decide where I want each color. I've got blacks/grays, neutrals (the tans, browns, olive green), blues, and brights (the cranberry, purple, pinks). Need to determine how I want them to go......and of course how much of each comes into play as well, since the borders the farther out get wider, means needing bigger scraps.....

If I had enough of the black, I'd do just one floating colored narrow strip, but I don't. I might see how navy looks next to it, as I do have a navy for something else that I can pull and buy back for the other project later....... will play and take photos so you can all weigh in!

Heather,
I agree with idea for border and having a solid narrow strip as part of border is a welcome break from the busy aspect of your colourfull blocks. If you have leftovers from all your blocks - it might be fun to make up sashing from those. I ended up doing that on a large quilt I made for my niece and it tied it up nicely even though it was somewhat labour intensive
cheers
Jeanine

Yes that was a lot of pinning (keep dividing the space and fullness in half, again and again) but after stitching and pressing you wouldn't know that it had happened - one of the positive sides of bias and easing, that I have learnt from tailoring & dressmaking When orientation/placement is important it can help to mark either with a pin or a small note pinned onto each block - more prep time, but less ripping time.

Rosemary, your spool quilt is beautiful!!! I imagine those setting triangles were difficult, but what a fantastic job! YIKES on all that pinning!! Thank goodness mine cut out the right size, more or less, LOL, so I didn't have to mess with bias-edged ones. yikes.

I tell you what, though, I'm saving on point for quilts where orientation and order of blocks doesn't matter, from here on out. And paying more attention next time to where the sashing needs to go, where the triangles go, etc. What a bear it was!

My mentor said same as you on borders --- she suggested a bit more of the black/background, then a pieced (piano key style) neutrals from the quilt, then a pieced/scrappy pinwheels from the quilt -- heavy on the blues, 'cause that is our favorite color -- then repeat a neutral at the outside to bring it to the right size. I'm playing in EQ7 to see how many and how wide I need the borders to get up to bed sized, and pulling my scraps and leftovers to see what I have that will work, and then fingers crossed I won't have to buy new fabric for this! I might need to "borrow" some blue from a different project, to use in the blue pinwheels, but we'll see. Will for sure have to rob my son of his scraps, as he got all the scraps from this when I first pieced the squares.

Oh! no, not pinwheels, hour glass blocks. Anyway, to mimic/repeat the triangles.

She did laugh with me that I could, if I need to, go back and buy most of these fabrics again because of the way fabric is here. Can't do that in the US, I'm told -- fabric originally bought 2 to 3 yrs ago, yes, I can still find it all in the store today.....(sigh). But I think I have enough scraps and leftovers to manage.

For borders - I think that blues would work, so would reds or the neutrals that you used for the front second from the left star block. As Norma suggests lay out the fabric in the planned proportion and take photos of several different options. this is a great way to audition different colours.

By the way, I was thinking 'huum, so on point is supposed to be more difficult, I really must try that '. Then I remembered that I have already done an on point border on my Wot Rott reels quilt, and yes I ended up with wrong sized setting triangles (some of them don't have the grain going up/down even now because I ran out of fabric), putting them on the wrong way around and having to take them off again etc. Even though I had them laid out on my 'design wall' mattress, when I took off several to sew on the setting triangles I got some of them the wrong way around , particularly when I was changing direction of angle. This is one of those times when I appreciate if I haven't got my tension perfectly balanced, because it makes it easier to undo {!-- ia0 -->CIMG7301.JPG{!-- ia0 -->

Looking great! Yup, like your border ideas too!

Wow worth the effort. I'd think about what colours are in the bedroom because there are so many in the quilt you've got a good choice.

I like your quilt. The blocks are bright and colorful, so I think your ideas on borders are very good. I would have suggested something similar . You can test it by taking photos of different fabrics and colorways and see what you like best.

ritzy wrote:
good idea! I did make notes on the print out; I'll be sure and write it somewhere else too so I don't forget, LOL. Maybe lots of somewheres!

I got it fixed and put together --- now need to decide how many/what colors for borders.....I welcome any suggestions! I think we do want it for the bed (this part fits just perfectly to be on top of the bed, so any borders would be the part that hangs over the bed, which is what I had wanted). Thinking a color border, then a narrow black (same as the sashing) then another color (or repeat the same) and then black binding. But.....ideas? Suggestions?

Here it is:


I still need to trim/square it up, but it's all together now so that's good!

Heather--write yourself notes on what you did wrong and what you learned to do it right. I always forget from one project to another what I did that worked.