Help! I can't bring myself to cut it up
 

I hope I'm not the only one that feels emotional attachment to fabric and gets upset when having to cut into a beautiful piece of fabric. ;)

i have 5 large pieces (10xWOF) of this Royal Orchid fabric that I received from my Grams stash after she passed last year. I adore the beautiful flowers and don't really want to cut it into smaller pieces, but am wondering if this looks ridiculous? Thinking a small black border and then FMQ around the flowers. Thoughts?

Thanks in advance for your help!
Carly Ann


[ATTACH=CONFIG]388926[/ATTACH]

I think it would be lovely with a white/cream border and a black binding. A good "remembrance" of your grandmother.

A small black border would be nice and if you had more of the red black stripe a wider border then you could miter the corners.Mary

You're not alone. I have a piece with no emotional ties like you with your grandmother, but just love, love, love that fabric and every time I think about using it I break out in a sweat! I think you have come up with a good solution above - doesn't need to be a fancy quilt, just needs to be something that reminds you of gramma. I like Queen's idea above, narrow black inner border then more of the stripe - if no more stripe, put a red border on it.

Ditto here! This was my first thought as I read your post. Beautiful fabric and a white border with black binding will leave you with wonderful memories of your DGM!

I think that it will make a beautiful quilt just the way you have it. I agree with quiltingme about the borders.

I think this looks great. How about a narrow black strip on each side of the stripe material too! Maybe 3/4" wide!
Wow! And what will the backing be?
peace.

It will be beautiful like that. It is lovely fabric and easy to see why you don't want to cut it smaller. I agree to a black binding and possibly a cream border. You are lucky to have such a lovely reminder of your grams.

Thank you all! I think cream border would be perfect, and lighten it up a bit. Do not have any more stripe, was lucky to find this leftover piece tucked away. Haven't thought about the backing, but might just do black. Thinking my sister needs this one. She doesn't sew (the horror ;) )and didn't end up with much from Gram, and black would work well for her.

Paulswalia, That makes me feel better! I have a few of those fabrics too, but something about this one really got me. Been working through the stash though, and it just felt like the right time. :)

I knew you all would have the answer! Thank you!!

I just have to share this with you all....my Mom was a tailor/seamstress extraordinaire: I never saw the woman break a sweat over ANYTHING until she was about to take scissors to a $36 per yard irreplaceable silk piece (it was bought in China by her customer)...she whined over that enough to make me think that material that expensive would NEVER cross my cutting table and cause me that much anxiety...and that was at least 40 years ago!!! And by the way, the custom made ladies suit she ended up making was beautiful! I don't believe I have EVER paid that kind of money for a yard of material...so at my house, it's all fair game! Cut it if it requires!