Friday, February 17, 2017

Adinkra Borders


One set of borders have been added to the Adinkra top. These were tricky, since I am only working with fat quarters, have a limited selection, and since I fussy cut to get the motif. But I really like how these work with the quilt.  The side borders don't show the blue as much as I would have liked, but there is a faint blue, and is the same fabric as as some of the blocks (the bird, comb, and star). 

The top and bottom border fabric hasn't been used in the quilt but the gold echos the gold in the economy blocks, and the blue-purple helps tie the blue and the purple of the two types of blocks together.

I had to add cornerstones since there wasn't enough of either fabric to make it all the way across the quilt without additional piecing.  I thought the purple might be too bright, but in the picture it looks like it blends right in. And the gold works with all the rest of the gold. I don't think it is African fabric, but I must have bought it at about the same time since I stored it in the same box.


The original plan was to add an outer border using the fabric left from the economy blocks.  What do you think? Does the quilt need outer borders? If so, how wide should they be? What should I use for a binding?

6 comments:

Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson said...

It looks finished to me with those borders. I think it would be hard to find another fabric that looks good with both of those fabrics and and that also still let the center blocks that you have put so much work into be the star of the show.

June D said...

Beautiful! The borders you have added are perfect! If you have enough fabric for the outer border it does look nice in that width. I wonder what it would look like if you used that fabric for the binding and fooled around with the width of the binding?

Allie-oops Designs said...

Really pretty! I think it would like fine like this or with an added border - I like the fabric you used for the cornerstones. If you don't find a fabric you like for the binding, you could always do a no-binding binding - where it doesn't show on the front.

Kaja said...

When I saw the first photo I thought it was a finished quilt, though I like the border fabric too, so I guess it might depend on whether you have a particular idea about size. If it were me I might just use the fabric left from the economy blocks as my binding.

mary truax said...

Your quilt is lovely. May i suggest a dark solid or mottled outer border. Same width as the blocks. And bound with the same fabric as the outer border. This will frame your beautiful blocks as Wanda suggested and make them the "star of the show." Happy Quilting!

Tanya said...

Yes, I think the last border holds everything together. And the width you have there looks about right too.