Need help with between blocks
 

I'm making this for my nephew...he's a musician and I need some help with the strips between the blocks. What color would you advise? I was going to do black...(and still may) but it seems to be telling me I need something else. I'm almost tempted to lay it out on a tan color about the shade of the wooden guitar tops. (If I have something close, I'll take a picture and post it here) It really seems to be shouting that I need a primary.

Opinions, suggestions and comments welcome.

OK. He is a musician. Judging from the quilt you have created for him, he is a bit funky. Instead of plain sashing, how about making the blocks float with shadows? Use black sashing strips as planned, but give them bright orange "shadows".

Here is little tutorial that explains what I'm talking about. I've done several styles of blocks this way and it always looks good to me.

http://madanquilting.blogspot.com/20...-tutorial.html

i would go with a color that has not been used in the primary pinwheels... maybe green. my other thought is to use brown... not a light brown like the guitar tops, but an almost dark brown. that will still allow separation of the blocks but keep the dark look.

I also would go with a color not in the quilt. I think that black, or any of the solid pin wheel colors, will just make the matching blades of the pinwheels sort of disappear. Is there a green in the musical note fabric?

I like this Idea.

The brown of the floor looks good in between the blocks. I think black would be too much black with the black in the blocks. Tan might be a good choice. I don't know if you could find it, but there is a music fabric white with black musical notes on it that might also look good. I'd go with almost anything but black.

What about wood grain brown fabric? This is going to be a really neat quilt for your nephew.

Can you find someone with EQ to import your blocks to see how they would look with this option? It sounds like a great idea.

I'm such a strong visual person so the only way I can figure these things out is to do a few quick mockups.

I would go with your intuition which is telling you to use black or primaries. I think the black sashing is definitely a possibility (first example). Also, try using the secondary colors in the note fabric - green and/or purple. Purple sashing with green cornerstones or green sashing with purple cornerstones (second example); or all purple sashing; or all green sashing. Black sashing with multicolored cornerstones is another possibility. Orange is another secondary color but I can't tell on my monitor if there is orange in the note fabric - looks like maybe it's in the guitar fabric.

My favorite is the black sashing because it emphasizes the pinwheels. Not sure I care for the green sashing. Try the tan and how about a clear pure gray? Try auditioning many combinations, take photos of each one, and one will pop out as the right one.

Have fun!

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Hmmm ... thinking set it on point with black alternating blocks, narrow black border then pick a primary (red or yellow probably) for a second border.