What, you thought I wasn’t working on this at the moment…?
Yeah, right. So, as you can see, there’s been a bit of progress. I finished the starburst, I added a gold/ochre print border with corner posts, and I’ve made a bunch of sets of three 2½ inch strips sewn together to make the chequerboard border.
I think I’m going to put in corner squares of solid fabric. That’ll help to stretch the strip sets, plus I like the way it looks! I have large enough squares of some of the prints left over to let me do that, so it’s a question of choosing the ones I like best, and that work together. After that, who knows…? I haven’t yet decided if I’ll add another border and finish the quilt, or if there’s more to it. It’s evolving as I go along. I do want it to be at least lap quilt size, or around 48 inches square. Other-wise it’s just for pretty, not for useful, and I do like things to be both.
Next is setting out all the squares in the chequerboard. At the moment, the layout for the top border shown above is just placed, not sewn. There was lots of placing, stepping back, squinting, thinking, changing… and repeat. I like this layout, so I’ll repeat it on each side. You won’t be able to tell, I don’t think, as the strips will hopefully look random enough to avoid visible repeats. I know that the original long strips were mostly not very exactly sized (it’s the way I bought them, not my defective cutting!), so I’m not aiming for perfect seam matching here, more of a mosaic effect. Still, if I do match, it’ll be a happy accident! Lots more stitching to come as I piece these border panels.
I’m liking how the lighter colours at the centre of the starburst are shading out to more intense shades on the sides. I think if there is another border, it needs to be darkish, to finish off. And maybe a paler binding, for contrast….
And away we go again.