"STITCHING MENDS MY SOUL"

Sunday, March 1, 2009

BULL'S EYE QUILT


This UFO is about 5 years old. It is a traditional, primitive, bull's eye pattern made in Civil War era reproduction fabrics. The circles were cut by folding a fabric square into fourths, and then free-hand cutting the circle. The circles are sewn with raw edges. When I put it out on my queen-sized guest bed to get ideas for quilting, I realized that with just a bit more border it would be large enough for a queen bed.



So back to my stash I went. Since this is a primitive quilt, I want to stick with that thought and only use stash on it. I pulled several good-sized pieces of fabric that I could use. I'm looking for suggestions.




Which fabric(s) do you prefer, and how would you use them in the borders? Please leave a comment with your ideas, and thanks in advance for your help.

14 comments:

Hanne said...

I like the brown and the black the best.
Maybe with a red binding ?

The quilt is lovely!

librarybook said...

I like the two fabrics to the left, the pink and the brown. Make two borders one small and one slightly larger. Love the quilt.

Anonymous said...

I like this busy quilt very much. Maybe not too much colour in the borders, to show it off better. What about neutral, and maybe one stripe of your favorite colour ?

Anonymous said...

I like this busy quilt very much. Maybe a neutral border to set it off ? With just one stripe of your favorite colour ?

Wenche said...

I would use all the fabrics and go for a stripy border. A single colour border wouldn't do your quilt justice. IMHO

Anonymous said...

How much 'more'do you need to make this work on the bed? First I'd put a stopper strip (narrow sashing) of about 2-inches around the quilt interior. THEN I'd use all the pieces. Decide the lengths of the borders you need. First cut the fabrics into 6.5 inch widths and then cut the lengths into pieces no less than 12.5" and no more than 24" and then sew them together into long strips for the borders. I've used this technique on primitive looking quilts and like it. Dee in NE

Anonymous said...

I am curious as to whether or not you cut away the backs of the bull's eyes or not. I love your quilt and the colors you chose.

Anonymous said...

I like all the fabrics you showed and would do a "mixed border" with all those fabrics. I can see in my minds eye an in-between border made up of the neutral fabric with the "quarter/half circle" in the mixed fabrics to make an interesting effect. But that would take a bit more sewing time.

Susan
Manjimup W Australia

Melodie said...

I would use all the fabrics and make a piano key border.

Bonnie said...

You need to audition the fabrics. Lay out your selections with 20" showing up and sideways at a corner. Make the width what you are thinking of using. If you are thinking 2 borders lay both down. If your space is big enough you can do two corners and compare. I would put the far right fabric as a small 2" or less border to stop the action. Then another border. However, that said, I am not much into primitives. Do you have a source to look at antique primitive quilts? What have they done with the borders. I rather like the idea Dee came up with. A mixed border. Good luck.

Jeanne said...

I agree with Melanie and would try a piano key border using the fabrics shown. It's a beautiful quilt!

denise/deBRAT said...

how about using the same type of method only.... use only one circle of fabric cut in half out of the light background type. then applique that down however you did the center blocks onto a variety of dark backgrouds. then use these blocks as a border around the center light background blocks making it look almost scalloped ... not sure i explained this well enough but i tried. denise/deBRAT in tampa bay florida

denise/deBRAT said...

okay so i worked up my idea in EQ5 and posted a post to my blog with Pat's bull's eye quilt pic and my border suggestion. if you do not wish this to stay at my blog just let me know at
debrat @ tampabay . rr . com
and i'll take it down.
my blog post currently if Pat allows it to stay is the March 10th posting
http://debratsquilting.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Hey, Pat, I have been in this house for 7 years this year and we made those bulls eyes at the old house. Was it when Timothy a baby. Around 1999 or 2000. So its older then you think.