These blocks first appeared on the blog here, in 2008; then I lost enthusiasm for them and they languished in a basket. I had another go at finishing them in 2011, but that didn't take either. It took another 3 years of 'maturing', packed away on the shelf, before I decided what to do with them. I love making this block, it's so easy and effective, and great for scraps. I must love it, as I have a set of multi-coloured ones as well.
I sewed all the pieces together quite happily, but now the border is being difficult. I know I want it done quickly, but something in me just loves to fuss with options and details and maybes. Nothing is ever simple once I get in this mood, but instead of fighting it I should just power through it, choose one thing and then get it DONE!
It's a long narrow quilt, 50 x 70", which I don't like, but I want it to actually fit a single bed, so I'm not going to make it too wide. It needs a border to finish it off and bring it to a useable size, but the question is whether to make it a dark border, or a light border, or something in between. Pieced? A single fabric? Long scraps of different blues?
I remembered a zigzag border I made for another quilt;
The rejected bits are still waiting for the right quilt, and I thought this one might be it. However, I think it's a bit heavy, and a bit too spiky.
All those zigzags seem to fight with the centre blocks. I love the border, just not on this set of blocks; I think it will look good on another indigo quilt I've started, so I'll put those two together and see if it's a match made in heaven.
I tried various blue and white prints, but they didn't appeal.
There is an equal amount of dark blue and light neutral fabrics in the blocks, so I started thinking about fabrics that have the same mix of light and dark. This coverlet print seems to work;
it's not blue and it's not neutral, and I like the large scale of the print.
Hmmmm, what to do with the dozens of triangles left over from the blocks?
Maybe turn them into scrappy Flying Geese and make a little border?
I like this, even though I'll have to make a lot more of them to go all the way round the quilt. But whatever happened to my quick-fix UFO finish? I'll be making HSTs for the rest of the weekend, and puzzling over how I'll get that border print to go round the corner nicely. I must love a challenge, because I keep setting them for myself. I might learn a lot from solving these puzzles, but I haven't yet learned how to slap something together and call it done. I need lessons in that.....
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