The challenge we received from Anja this week was ideal for my project. She had a very simple directive: Choose two colors for this week’s border. Sew them together in any way that you like.
The plan I made for this project included color assignments for each round. When pulling fabrics, I made a bag of scraps for each color. I quickly pulled out my green and my blue fabrics and spread them out. How will I sew them together this week?
To get me thinking about shapes and lines, I browsed for photographs that illustrated subjects in my theme. For the green border, I wanted to depict the re-planting of a forest after a fire has destroyed it. For the blue border, the subject was to be melting polar icecaps.
Here are my two inspiration photographs:
I started with the green image of young trees planted in orderly rows. To be honest, I don’t think large forests are re-planted in exactly the same manner. I chose the photo for the graphical quality. This representation made it easy for me to see a quilt block pattern “hidden in the trees.” Getting out my sketchbook, I drew a grid and placed the trees within it.
Voila – a nine-patch block made of half-square triangles.
It wasn’t so fast for me to put the squares together. I have very little experience in making most basic quilt blocks. But eventually I had them sewn up into rows.
Here is the green border sewn together and attached to the quilt.
While my back was turned, a few butterflies flitted into view and perched on the border. They are not green, but I hope they will stay.
The blue border is next. In my inspiration photo, the shapes of ice and open water are not regular in the least. But I knew what to do. I will make this border with improvisational piecing, using a “slash and sew” technique.
I topped the ice and water piecing with a sky cut from hand-painted fabric.
And here is my quilt with my blue and green borders.
Now that you’ve seen my challenge completed, have a look around at the other quilters who are playing. You can find their quilts at the Linky party.
Click HERE.
Daily Fiber 