Monday, July 8, 2013

The Itsy Bitsy Spider(web) Border Dilemma

It's early morning here--good morning to all! I've been trying to write this blog for about 45 minutes. It's hard to type when something is crawling up your leg with sharp claws. And I have pajamas on that are thin cotton and only come to below the knees!

My little charmer has fallen asleep on my lap and now I can type with both hands!

The Little Charmer

Who can resist this little girl? Her name is Squirt and she is a bundle of love and no bigger than a minute. You may remember that I lost my cat last Spring. Within a few weeks, I was pining away for a kitty. I decided to wait until summer when I'm home and could devote time to her. Once I got home from vacation, I was able to wait 4 whole days before hubby and I were off to the animal shelter.

Squirt stole my heart the minute I picked her up and she snuggled under my chin! She's settled into the house very well. My dog and hubby's cat aren't not so sure about the little interloper...both of them are afraid of her! Bunch of wusses!

Squirt in my inbox
Looks like our house is going to be turned upside down. She's been chewing on paper in my inbox, swatting my houseplants (they make great toys), and generally having all those great kitty adventures.

Squirt perfecting innocent look after playing
with the houseplant.

Squirt's first night home

A couple of months back I was trying to figure out a border for my Spiderweb Quilt. I came up with what I thought of as a winning plan...only to sew it on and see it was definitely Not Working. That's when I turned to my lovely friends that read my blog and got ideas of how to improve my borders, which involved removing the borders I had put on!

Here is my latest version of a border. I chose a chocolate brown with colorful flowers or another with colorful sprinkles. I'm thinking of leaving on the yellow border. What should I do with an outer border. I'm adding wider borders because I need to make the quilt big enough for a queen size bed. The brown would be five inches wide. The next border would be about three inches.





And now, my friends, help me with these questions:
  • Which border do you like? or do you think both of them stink? Personally I like the border with the flowers.
  • Should I leave the yellow, swap places with the brown or use another color than yellow?
  • What color should the third border be? Busy? Tone on tone?
Please leave a comment and let me know what you think. You were so helpful last time and I'm relying on you to guide me on my way to finish this quilt. (Hoping the flattery and whining will help you to comment!)

Happy Monday To All!

Check out other great design walls (links on left border) at:

Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times
Show and Tell Tuesday
Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River
We Did It Wednesday
WIP Wednesday
It's A Party Wednesday
My Quilt Infatuation


15 comments:

  1. Happy Monday to you, too, Terri! Love the webs, but I can't help you with borders. I hardly ever use them myself... guess I can't figure them out at least color wise.
    Cute kitty. Hope she gives you lots of enjoyment.
    Hugs

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  2. I like the top one better of the two. Third border... hmmm.. what about black to frame it? Would certainly be quite bold. :)


    FYI - I moved blog platforms, my bloglovin feed has moved: http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/9760557

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oooo! That's the one I like too! I was thinking about black for the outer border. I don't want to go light on the outer border.

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  3. Love your spider web quilt. I've always wanted to make. When scrolling through your blog I noticed you did a Mud Run. I had to look to see if you were from our area as we recently had one. Looks like fun but I think I'm too old to participate!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fun for other people. Fun to watch everyone get muddy. Me too--I'm too old to be in one. Maybe old isn't the right term. Too out of shape to participate, unless I want to leave in an ambulance. But I'm just the right age to watch my daughter do it!

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  4. Squirt is ADORABLE! I'd leave the yellow, use fabric #1 and go dark for the outer border - good luck!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much for your help! Now onto the fabric store to find the third border! Can I really endure a trip to a fabric store???!!! *sigh* ;-)

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  5. love the kitty! such a sweet sewing machine buddy! how about taking both borders off and putting on a wider red to match the red in the blocks? or red and a cream? these would tie a lot of elements together and allow the eye to "rest"....good luck on deciding for such a beautiful quilt!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I like your idea about the red. It is a difficult color to match, but on my trip to the fabric store I'll see if I can match it! Thanks for your input. Squirt is my computer buddy, she monitors how much I use it. She loves to sleep on the cushion on the computer chair. While she's sleeping there, quite often, I don't use the computer!

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  6. I would remove the borders and add a whole row of blocks, then quilt and bind it with no borders.

    If you keep the borders, I think the yellow is too light, it needs to be a mustard, then border # 1, then I like the above idea of back for the outer border.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Love squirt! Not too fond of both borders but would pick no 2. Good luck with finding the right look for you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I'll need luck. With the excellent advice I've been getting, I might rethink the brown border. It's only the second time to change it and the first time I actually had it sewn on the the quilt!

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  8. Squirt is precious!! and I love your spiderweb quilt! I would use the yellow and the top fabric, and then frame it with something dark, maybe black?

    Thank you so much for sharing at Needle and Thread Thursday!

    :) Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm leaning the same way...I need to see if black would work. I'm off to the LQS today (fun!) to see what I can find.

      I had fun looking at other's creations on your site yesterday. You have a cool blog!

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  9. I'd replace the yellow w/black, at about that same width, then have a wider border of the red if you have it, then a final one of black. It's striking, goes with the middle of the quilt, and sets everything off beautifully.

    If you put black up against it and it doesn't look right, maybe a navy blue and the red, because there's a lot of blue there.

    I find it fairly easy to know if a border is going to look right once I'm at the point you're at...just lay it all next to your middle in the kind of size you need.

    So, if you're thinking of 11" total of border, you fold your black material to 11" wide and as long as your middle. Lay that down. Then fold your red material to 5" wide and lay it down along the middle of the black strip. Step back and see how it looks -- it should give you a very good idea of how it looks sewn, and it saves you a lot of aggravation later.

    My personal opinion is that I wouldn't use either brown at all; they detract from the gorgeousness of the middle! :)

    ReplyDelete

I love comments. They make me smile and feel warm and fuzzy. To show you my appreciation, I try to answer everyone's comment. :)

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