I'm making a lap quilt out of Maywood Woolies flannel (wonderful fabric by the way) and here's my dilemma: I have a 6" block that I bordered with green and the green is just too dark - the block doesn't "pop" and I don't want to rip all 9 blocks apart and start with a new color. (I'm kicking myself for not rehearsing other colors before I did all that work, but that's another story.) My idea is to use ribbon to make a flange with a brighter color so that just 1/8" of the green shows, then there would be the ribbon flange, and then I would continue by adding on another border. I thought the ribbon - maybe grosgrain? - would be a nice texture and would add some interest. I don't want to use more flannel because the flange would be pretty thick.

Has anyone ever used ribbon as a flange? Or, any ideas on how to minimize my mistake and make this block pop without having to rip out the green border that's already on?

I would suggest using 100% cotton & fold into a flange rather than the ribbon. The ribbon might not be colourfast and it also might not shrink at the same % as the flannel.

You don't say how wide the green border is on each block, but it might work to trim it to a half inch all the way around and then add a different color border to make up the difference to your full block size. That way you would have just a quarter inch edging of the green and a more pleasing (to you) wider border on the blocks. No ripping out involved. I would not use ribbon for a flange, nor would I use any flange within a block. They are too difficult to quilt around on the interior parts of a quilt.

you could add a skinny sashing around the blocks in black.

The ribbons will not hold up during laundring... I think you would be happier with the end result using fabric :D:D:D

Thanks for your advice. The ribbon idea wasn't so hot. I am going to order more fabric online and use ghostrider's idea about trimming down the green. I hope the mailman hurries!

Post some pics for us to see.