Monday, February 6, 2012

nearing the finish line

My car-themed quilt for our little friend Julian's upcoming birthday is almost fully pieced.


This is one project that I am going to carry straight through to the finish line without any distraction, simply because I have a deadline.  Julian's parents have been tremendously generous to us, and very appreciative of the little quilt I made last spring for Julian's baby sister Imogen (below).




I'm excited to be able to make something special for Julian's 3rd birthday.

To fit Julian's twin-sized (big boy) bed, I need to add about 8" in width, about 4" to each side. The question before me now is what to do with those 4"?

I have enough "Plaidsportation" yardage left to do this -- that's the car print with the black background featured in the centre of each log-cabin block, and in 4" squares between log-cabins.  But I'm not 100% sold on the notion of long dark strips at each side of this quilt top, although it seems fortuitous that I have just enough of my feature fabric to complete this task.  And I have completely depleted my stash of light gray, used to make my two "streets," so that isn't an option.

As always, I would welcome suggestions from you, my wise and talented readers!  Plaidsportation?  Strips of solid colour? Or maybe my favourite option for the side strips,  at least from a design perspective (but also the most labour-intensive option): something pieced? (!)

4 comments:

Sheila said...

I just love this boy quilt, the street sashing is super.I would be tempted to go for the yardage you have, from a purely practical point - time and availability. The dark borders probably wouldn't seem too in your face when the quilt is on the bed.
However, a pieced border sounds good too, if you have time?

LizA. said...

I looked at this last nite and nothing came to mind but I've come up with something. First, I think I'd put a smallish black stop border all the way around. Then how about a checkerboard with the black print and all the colors you used to surround the squares. I'd make the checkerboard squares the same size as the black print center squares. That incorporates the theme out into the border while still keeping the playful bright colors.

Archie The Wonder Dog said...

I love this quilt so far! I think Sheila's right about a dark 'feature fabric' border being the practical choice and it will look lovely on his bed. What pieced border would you do? Alternate feature squares and bright solid squares could look nice...

Susan said...

It's for a 3 year old. It's going to be used. Add your feature fabric and call it good. =)