Brainstorming
Hi ya'll, hoping for some new eyes on this - this is going to be a long post, btw. I'm working on designing a full-length quilt for my king size bed - I've just always liked the look and I love making bed quilts. This is going to be a hugely ambitious project, though. It's going to be fun!
Anywho, I'm trying to decide what to do with the pillow area for this quilt, and also what to do with the corners on the second border (from the inside.) Pic is attached (I hope.) (Pop down to the end for the summary of this long bit.)
Going from the inside out, the medallion is a variation on a Mariner's Compass with rings of flying geese. I'm leaning toward figuring out how I would need to piece these, but if that seems to be too hard I'm not ruling out applique. The dotted lines on the center portion of the pic line out the pillow tuck, which is just going to be quilted with nautical designs (a la sailors' tattoos, perhaps). Above that is the pillow area - I'm not real sure what I want to do with that (see below). The dashed lines (and lighter color) are fitted to the top of my bed.
The first border is going to be just a simple strip, probably mitered corners.
The second border is going to be 8x8 inch sampler blocks in coordinating colors, which is what brings about the wonky corner pieces. I could make my life so much easier by making that border 10" wide, but I think 10x10 is too big for a border. (I'm also open to suggestions for blocks for that border - I've got to choose something like 40 of them or something.) I haven't decided whether I want to keep the blocks to compass and star style blocks, or go ahead and use regular blocks as well (i.e. card trick, 4-patch, etc.) I'm having some trouble deciding how I want to handle to weird fit, and I'm looking for ideas other than using fewer blocks and sashing them.
The third border is just a 2" wide curling ribbon border, and I'd like to keep that width.
The last border is where I'm getting complicated, and I'm not sure if I can explain what's in my brain and make sense. I want this to be a full-length quilt, which by definition drops to within 1/2" of the floor. Problem is that I'm planning on some pretty dense quilting on the top, and I don't really have a good way to figure out how much shrinkage I'll have because of that. So what I came up with is that I'll make the top out to the third border, then quilt and bind. (It will basically be a finished quilt at this point.) Then once I've got the final measurement for that much, I'll figure out how much length I need on the final border and make the wedges individually (quilted and bound.) Then I'll use either embroidery floss or lace thread (whichever looks the best and seems strongest) and sew the wedges together and to the quilt with a loopy kind of stitch so there's a little space between the pieces - 1/4" or so - so it looks a little bit lacy. Triangle pieces will be the same as the bg fabric on the top (and in the 2nd border, though that isn't shown,) and if I can find the right fabrics, I'll probably fussy cut the dresden wedges from...some kind of fabric. Not sure about that part yet. But that will give me a pretty border at the perfect length. Theoretically.
~*~ IN SUMMARY ~*~
All of this nonsense is to ask the following two questions:
1. What could I/should I/would you do with the weird corner pieces in border #2? (If my math is right, I've got 6" to fudge on the sides and 2" on the bottom if I don't have the weird pieces.) I've thought of sashing the blocks (and using correspondingly fewer blocks,) but I'm trying to see if there are any other ideas out there before I decide.
2. The common thing to do would be to use wedges of the mariner's compass in the pillow section, but if I don't really like that. I'm kind of thinking of something like applique wavy lines (i.e. blowing wind kind of look,) but this is a very vague and nebulous idea. Anyone got any others?
And another question that pops to mind as I'm writing this:
3. In border #2 (the sampler block border), should I/would you use just compass and star blocks, or should/would all kinds of blocks be fair game?
Total size of the quilt is 130" x 130".
Whew! That took longer than I thought. What do y'all think? I've got plenty of time to fiddle with the design - it's probably going to take me all year to save enough for the fabric. And I'm really hoping the picture posts.