She Does Go On

Occasionally, a topic of conversation will come up between my daughter and me that is the subject of a recent conversation.  These topics are never sensitive or hot topics, but things like a shared memory, a funny scene from a movie, or a recent event that one of us mentioned a few days before.  Sometimes we sense the topic coming up again and one of us will say, in jest, "You do go on."  And we'll both laugh, knowing what would have been coming.  (I don't how we came to use the phrase "you do go on.")

If you happen to have read two recent posts about this quilt and are now reading this one, you might think to yourself, "She does go on about making that quilt."  And I would laugh and agree.  Sometimes I need to write down  thoughts and share photos in hopes having a different view or of someone pointing out what I don't see myself.  So here I am, going on about this quilt.  No hard feelings if you're sick of it and leave before reading.

I finally resorted to taping a sheet to the floor in hopes of keeping the cats from playing on and with the blocks.  I thought it would prevent them from sliding across the floor and into the blocks.  It's helped but has not prevented the cats from being on the blocks.  Those cats just love fabric and quilts!  Ah, well....

Since I finished the blocks, I've been trying different possible sashing options.  I have several iterations to show.  You may have to look closely to see them.

I had decided I would probably use coral squares at the ends of the sashing to help create nine-patches, but then I saw these off-white pluses before I'd placed coral squares and had second thoughts.  They certainly give the eye a place to rest, even more so than the nearly-black sashing.  Then I put a few plaid squares in the centers (with several blacks near the top), just to see.  I don't think the plain pluses work well for this quilt.

 Below are the corals at the end of the sashing strips.  After looking at the white, these seem, maybe, a little too closed--too much of the same color.  Do you think the off-whites or the corals look more vintage, which was my original intention with this quilt?

And below, white with plaid squares in the centers.  I liked these when I first saw them but then I thought perhaps it was just an easy out from deciding which coral fabric(s) to use.  And grey centers or black?  Not coral centers because it would break up the diagonal pattern of dark plaids.

Scrappy coral fabrics at the ends of the sashing strips, and off-whites on the other side, for side-by-side comparison.

Below, there's one black center, and several different coral fabrics, including one bright red/orange near the bottom.  If coral fabric, all the same fabric (for as many as I have fabric, and then a similar fabric) or a scrappy variety of corals?

I've decided against that red/orange fabric in the photo above.  And I'm really having seconds and third thoughts about the corals in the sashing.  They don't really do what I thought they might, which is create a nine-patch secondary pattern.  I'm leaning toward off-white squares at the ends of the black sashing and black center squares.  But then again, plaids in the centers might be better....

The next consideration will be binding color.  There will be no borders on this quilt, just the 25-patch blocks with sashing.  Black binding?  Coral binding?  It's never too early to start thinking about that.  (The blocks in this quilt will finish at 10" and the sashing will finish at 2".  Before quilting and washing/drying, the top should be about 58" x 82".  Long and thin with plenty of length to tuck under to keep feet warm.

I know the decisions for a quilt are purely personal but I am interested in what you see and what you think of the possibilities in these photos.  Thanks for sharing, dear readers.

And now I'm done going on about this quilt, at least for this post.  Hopefully, the next time you see these blocks will be when they are sewn into a top.  Won't that be grand?!

I'm linking this post to
> Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework
> Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
Thanks for hosting, Cynthia and Judy.

--Nancy.