Could you give me some suggestions on my borders?
 

I'm making a lap quilt of my own design and have the middle done. It measures 40 1/4" x 43" at this point and I do plan on adding another 1/2" band of black. My DH thought maybe it should be 1" black. Anyway, I could add an outer border of the green (does 7" wide sound about right?) or I could do something else.

I'd really love to hear what suggestions you have for this. It's going to be a sampler for the needle-turn classes that I teach.

Thanks!

I would have to see it but your Hubby may be right. But a 7" border is a bit large for a lap quilt. That is the size up to 8" that I used when I made queen size quilts. Just lay it all out proportionally making changes and you will see what looks best since you are designing this lovely quilt. Good Luck.

That's lovely! I think the quiet green is ideal for showing off the birds. How wide is the black around the birds? I would experiment starting with 1/2", and just see which width seems to look best for an inner border. Maybe 3/4. I think the outer border could be about as wide as the horizontal green sashing sections.

I'd say YES to the half inch Black Border, then a 2 inch GREEN, then checkerboard green and black together, three rows of two x two inch blocks. It is very lovely, and whatever you do will be fine.

Really love how perfectly your birds turned out! For a second, I thought they were prints like the cornerstone squares. Just lovely!

I think a 1/2" stop border would be nice to so it's the same size as the sashing around your bird blocks.

Unless you have some particular applique design in mind that is 7", I would break the border up into 2-3 sections so it doesn't overtake the beautiful work in the center. 14" will be 1/4 of the finished size of your quilt so I'd continue some applique work out into the border to make it as beautiful as the rest of the quilt.

If you really are pressed for time, I'd go with the narrow black stop border, a 3" border that is similar to the pattern on your rug (leaves, scrolls, whatnot -- but a different hue/tone) with cornerstones (more birds?) followed by either a cheater cloth piano key 4" border or a solid border with thread painting of something coordinating with your theme -- birds, branches, leaves, flowers.

If you have a bit more time to put into it, I'd do the black stop border, a pieced 3" border, then a 4" applique border (or an applique border that is broken up into 3 different designs), followed by a black binding. For the pieced border, I might do a 3/4 piano key border (should need 10 jelly roll strips to complete -- cut down the middle). If you really want to be creative, you could even play with the colors in each quadrant so it reflects the changing seasons.

I googled "applique border" and here are some of the designs I thought might work with your quilt with minimal tweaking:

Black borders instead of red, but: http://www.karenkaybuckley.com/weblo...74-500x666.jpg

Changing seasons border: http://www.karenkaybuckley.com/weblo...94-500x471.jpg

Possibly my favorite -- realistic flowers: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...34f328aafe.jpg

Cherries, needs to be on taupe fabric, though: http://sentimentalstitches.net/wp-co...rder-marks.jpg

The leaves on this one (so tiny, though - ugh!): https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...act=mrc&uact=8

Black scrolls: https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=...4b254a.jpg&f=1

Birds on branches: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-i5brvpyrvh...uiltsw+006.JPG

Stylized birds (need to replace with realistic birds): http://simplebirdapplique.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/dscn4662.jpg?w=640&h=360

What a beautiful quilt!!! I have nothing to add about borders, just wanted to admire a beautiful quilt!

Dina

How beautiful! I would put a black sashing border around the entire center (same width as the other sashin). Then I would put a wider (maybe 2x the width of black or a little more) of the red in the cardinal bird, followed by a wide grey. The entire set of 3 could be 7" (or thereabouts). If you want to break it up, you could put a corner square of the birds in each outer corner, after the black.

I would frame it in black and add a red border with a black binding.

I would frame with a black same size as sashing. Then using the green put a 31/2" border. I would then see if it needs another border. A 7" may be too over powering in one go.
it is a beautiful quilt so take your time deciding.

Is 7" the space between your bird squares? I think that having that space repeated and then black binding would have a nice simpleness to it.

You all have given me so much to think about. Thanks for all the suggestions. Now, to go pull out some of my stash and play with some of your ideas. I'll post it in the pictures section when I get the top done.

I'm with Dottymo. Frame it in black then green sashing. I would not make the outside border bigger than the sashing.

I think a black border the same size as around the birds would work best. I think a 7" border is a bit large, perhaps 2 borders - first 3" then a 4". I would definitely audition the fabrics, but what about a creamy color to go with the bird backgrounds and then the green as the outer border?

Beautiful quilt ! I think the 1" black would be nice.. really frame it up!

I would go with black as others but mostly wanted to let you know it's beautiful.

wdhat about a black stop border the same width of the black in the sashing, then do 2 opposite corners with a row of flying geese (green and ??) going around those 2 corners, and the other 2 opposite corners maybe some of the suggested applique designs?

I was also thinking of adding some red in there. Love the quilt and am looking forward to seeing it finished. You have some great ideas here.

Well, you all have given me so many good ideas but, it's done now and I've posted it over in the pictures section. Thanks, all.