advice for sashing and borders
 

This is not a very large quilt (36x36) and I do plan on adding another border.

I'm wondering if I should put delicate embroidery designs in the sashing? Or just quilt in black?

Any other suggestions are more than welcome!

cropped it a bit too much at the bottom!

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a close up of one the blocks

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I love the way those tie up in knots! I have a lot of fun with stripes but haven't seen that set-up before.

I can't really help you on your question. I know I have a very modern project that is still in the mental planning stage but getting pretty close to being kitted out that uses a lot of black and Asian-inspired metallic fabrics. For me I think what I need is sashiko stitching in gold thread and I am not great at handwork but I'm afraid that's what that top needs. I'm hoping to change my mind by delaying progress but I guess I'll have to learn a new skill.

Either way you go, it will be lovely. Would the embroidery be by machine or by hand?

I kind of like the idea of some delicate gold embroidery....as Iceblosson suggests.

Delicate embroidery in the black sounds perfect!

The embroidery would be done by machine I do like the idea of gold thread!!

I can definitely picture some embroidery in the sashing. Great job on the top!

I would enlarge that stripe (blue and white one) that is at the bottom of the fabric. What's there is not big or wide enough. Needs some extra fabric. It would be a high contrast border and set off the dark fabric of the quilt. In my opinion this needs to be framed and I would use the high contrast.

I picture your borders embroidered or quilted in turquoise or light blue. It's a very unique quilt - love it!

I agree, if the embroidery is delicate and lacy looking (like an outline only, not a filled in embroidery) a blue that comes close in color and value to one of the blues in the print, in a super shiny thread like Glide or even a blue metallic would be stunning.

Iceblossom, of all the hand stitches I would say sashiko is the easiest to do. The stitches are large like big stitch quilting, you use a huge needle and it is a simple running stitch. Even with vision problems I think you could easily master it. There are loads of pre-printed sashiko panels out there that are printed with the actual stitch length, so a great resource to teach yourself how to do it. I enjoy sashiko but I do like handwork.

I prefer simple quilting patterns so I would probably do something in a basic swirl or half shell. But, I would do it in either a variegated or a goldish colored thread. Thank you for the second picture, it really shows off all the beautiful colors.

Feline, I'm thinking I can handle the sashiko and that it might take me years to finish but that's ok this is a project for me and there is no deadline. Would be sort of nice to be able to point to something and say I hand quilted that. Sometimes we just gotta do what we just gotta do! I was looking at taking a class in December but the store is closing and class is likely to be cancelled. The good side of that is one of our semi-regulars in my Tuesday group works at that store and maybe will be more available for group -- and she is awesome on sashiko as well as Hawaiian quilting and embroidery and handwork in general.

My original plan was one "block" in each of the four middle parts. Turns out I was only focused on one of two options, so when I was doing the embroidery I put one in the wrong place LOL ... ah the joys of not paying close enough attention.

I chose a sashiko pattern, and did it in variegated blue ...

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Thanks! I saw it on pinterest (of course!) ... it's similar to a OBW but you use 7 layers instead of 6. It was pretty easy to do!

What stripe do you mean? If you mean at the very bottom, I cropped the picture too much LOL ...

I would add an embroidered flower in the blues that closely match the design of the flowers of the fabric. I have seen several over time of course you can always substitute the colors you want. I would stay with the black fabric as the base of the flowered border. Just a thought.