Border Beauties 1

I started playing with a heap of block designs, and added a couple of borders, intending to concentrate on the sashing. In quilt layouts I set the sashing to at least half the size of the block, then used block designs to fill the space. In this design I have used the same block throughout the main body of the design, so the block becomes elongated in the sashing, and smaller in the sashing squares.

Then I added a border design, liked it, and added it again! Rather dramatic! Then the whole focus of the designs became the borders, which have sort of overshadowed the sashing. (I have just counted 17 strips of fabric around the centre of this quilt, with 8 identical corners, which makes it simple, but probably mind-numbingly boring to actually stitch!) ((But no more boring than sewing together 80+ identical blocks which is required for a lot of quilts.))

This is the first quilt design from this project file that I have posted, but I think it is the best. You saw it here first because I kept playing and playing and found some other great designs, but as great as they are, this is my favourite ……….. the one I would make if I had a reason to make it. I will be showing more of these as a series, and I haven’t stopped playing with the project file either.

On a different note……….. There is a stash which very few people talk about, but I am sure I am not the only person who has kept precious scraps of paper in safe places all over the house. You know the ones, a rough scribble of a quilt block on the back of a shopping list, or a colour combination written on the back of an envelope, and the page of figures for a quilt made 14 years ago!

Spending time going through all the scraps in my filing cabinet, drawers and boxes I have found some scraps with designs that I used many moons ago. I was pleased with the resulting quilts, and I still like them ……….. but now I see new designs emerging from the scribbles. Along with new colour combinations and different prints the new quilts would bear little resemblance to the quilt from back then.

If you scribble down notes and sketchy plans for quilts, put them into scrap books for future reference …………. you might find some wonderful quilts there one day.