Border + Sashing quandaries

Honestly, I love my Kaleidoscope Groove quilt design, but bringing the concept to life in cloth has proved trickier than I thought. Not the sewing - that’s going swimmingly - but it’s the fabric choices that have been puzzling.

In this post, I’ve captured my evolving design process. I know that half of you are going to disagree with the choices I made, haha, so that’s also a lesson for us all. There really are no wrong choices!

version no. 1 - Rainbow sashing, dark cornerstones

You saw this version last week. Something about it felt too visually complex. An easy solution would be to ditch the sashing, but I wanted to keep the sashing and cornerstones for the overall design concept.

version no. 2 - Gray sashing, dark cornerstones

The rainbow sashing might be distracting from the kaleidoscope blocks, which should be the star of the show. Gray sashing feels cleaner and more modern, but something still feels off. I was tipped that the dark cornerstones might be the problem, so that’s my next move.

version no. 3 - Gray sashing, rainbow cornerstones

What if I bring the rainbow back in the cornerstones? Now the sashing/cornertones feel like supporting characters and the more dynamic kaleidoscope blocks feel prominent. Yay!

version no. 4 - Rainbow border

I’m ready to sew the outermost blocks, which should flow into the surrounding negative space and borders. Before I sew those blocks, I need to flesh out those details. My design has a 3” border all around. Gray would be an easy choice, but then the sashing will merge with the borders and obscure the irregular sashing design.

Maybe a rainbow border? Hmmm - no. That’s super distracting.

version no. 5 - Birds without borders

I am excited to use this bird fabric for the large chunks of negative space around the blocks! It has such a cool vibe and works well with the attitude of the design. But it’s also busy. To keep things clean, I’ve decided to ditch the outer border entirely. The quilt will still be big enough at 54” x 61”.