Hi, ladies:
I am in the processing of making a college quilt for my son. He recently graduated and moved to CA. He is an organic synthesis chemist.
I have two questions. First, if I only use one fabric as background/sashing, which one do you prefer ( the top one or the bottom one)? You might have to look more closely. some of the blocks are just color paper copies and I am going to have them print on fabrics. At this stage, I just need something to look at to see the overall effect and determine the size of each image to fit for the design.
Second, would it be better instead of using one fabric, I make some quilt pattern to fill up between the images like the second quilt picture (which I copied from this website and I hope the owner won't blame me for using it without permition)? My concern is that if I make some patterns as sashing/filling, it will be too busy and all the images won't stand out. My current background is more of a red color. I am trying to stay close to Harvard school color - crimson. If I make different quilt patterns as sashing, the whole background color will change, too. I am not sure if that's what I want to see.
My current layout is more like a picture album page, not much quilt component in it. I made one high school graduation T-shirt quilt for my son before. That was my first quilt.
I came from China 26 yrs ago. That's why you see some Chinese in the design. I started learning quilt making three years ago. I leaned so much from this forum and enjoyed making quilts very much.
Thanks for any input.
Happy Holidays everyone!