Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Help!

I'm working on an applique baby quilt. I knew that I wanted to make a bright, butterfly quilt. In 2004, I made this baby quilt inspired by Eric Carle, containing a butterfly.
I loved the bright colors, and wanted to make something totally girly this time. I found this batik and used it as my starting point for fabric choices, though the colors are a bit outside of my comfort zone.

I now have the butterflies appliqued together, but not the whole quilt pieced. One of the butterflies is bothering me a bit. I'm not a big fan of bright pink, so that pink, ugh. I bought quite a bit of that pink, too. I guess I thought it really went well with the butterfly batik.

So, this is where I need your help. I planned this background, with strips of purple and the butterfly batik on either side of the white. I'm not sure how well you can see them in these photos. Should I keep it this way?

Or, should I add a bit of the pink, so the pink on the butterfly doesn't stand out as much? Or, would a pink binding tie things together enough (attempts at showing a pink binding in above photo with the wad of pink on the side.)

Or, should I lose the purple and just have the butterfly batik between the white (like in the photo below?)

Or, should I tear out all bits of that bright pink from the butterfly, replacing with some other color? Like maybe a lighter pink?

Or, do you have other suggestions? Please be honest, I do want input. (though I did spend quite a bit of time designing and sewing this, so, you know, be kind.)

8 comments:

The Dunns said...

I'm definitely not as creative as you, so do what you want with this. ;)

I really like the colors you've chosen. Very pretty. I like the cool, earthy colors in the quilt with the bright pink just in the center butterfly. I prefer the first picture without the pink binding. Using the bright pink in only the butterfly makes it a little surprising and special. Or maybe adding a thin strip of pink above and below the center white strip between the white and the batik would be a nice accent. Have fun!

Julie @ Jaybird Quilts said...

i vote for pink binding... i think it will create the balance you are looking for!

sara said...

I really like the batik so I vote to us a wider stripe of that, basically reverse the purple & the batik in the first quilt pic. I like the pink as a pop just in the butterfly, any more might be distracting. The quilt is beautiful! I can't wait to see the finished piece. You have such talent.

Linda said...

Love the way the butterflys overlap the sections on your quilt. It's hard to see from your pictures....it looks like plain white fabric between the batiks? I wonder if your batik would show more if the white background was replaced with say a purplish blue sky fabric....just a thought.

Swistle said...

Wait. Wait wait wait. You...MADE those amazing quilts??? That is...astonishing. My jaw, it drops.

I have NO TALENT in this area, NONE, but I am going to give my opinion anyway, and then you should probably do the opposite.

I think the pink binding makes the pink in the butterfly stand out more.

I think I'd like the border to be the red color.

If the pink is bothering you, I wonder if it would be possible not to rip it out but to sew another color over it, either over all the pink or over most of it? Unless ripping it out is easier? Me = not someone who knows about sewing.

Kristin L said...

I'm with Sara -- all the colors look great, but it would be nice to see more butterflies. I'd make the butterfly batik teh wider one, teh purple a thin accent, and then bind the whole thing in pink just for fun. The applique butterflies are beautiful!

Victoria Findlay Wolfe said...

my two sense? I prefer the batik stripe. (not the bright purple stripe) to close to the butterfly colors. The butterflies stands off nicer on the batik. is the white a must have? maybe a soft print instead... also, watch the bleeding on the white... I love the big butterlfies! I have not done much applique, but I may have to play around after looking at these beauties!

Just keep auditioning fabrics, you will know when you have the right combo! follow your gut dearie, you'll get tons of opinions...

Anonymous said...

It's all good...do everything... Bob

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