First Border Prompt for Bramble Blooms II

I've been doing a lot of thinking about how to present the second Bramble Blooms prompt. First and foremost, it needs to be said that it's your quilt. If you already have ideas spinning around in your head and fabric to back it up, just go do whatever it is that the quilt is requesting. Series work that starts gaining momentum doesn't need outside help. Feel free to follow the muse! 

Bramble Blooms II--A

If you're here for the next prompt because the quilt hasn't spoken yet, then I'm all about that too. This is a QAL after all! What we're trying to do with this particular quilt is introduce most of the same variables from BBI, but in a brand new format. The point is to mix and mash and basically just throw things at the wall until something inside us says, 'Oh yeah'. That's the thing. I kinda like that!' It doesn't have to be this huge welling of excitement. A positive hum is perfectly satisfactory.

1ST BORDER PROMPT FOR BBII: This specific prompt is all about choices. Personal choices. Where do you envision this quilt going? The 1st border can include piecing, applique or even a mix of the two. Don't panic yet! This will be easier than you think to decide. Go back to the first Bramble Blooms quilt and take a look as to what elements might look best carried over into this border round of BBII. You're not going to want it to be an exact copy, but you definitely want to strive to keep the essence of your previous make. Something is probably going to settle into your subconscious. Think connections. Associations. Correlations. Or even echoes?  It's important to keep to the theme, however loosely that comes about. Don't be afraid to stretch the obvious boundaries while redoing a previous prompt.

PIECING OR APPLIQUE?: If you choose piecing, the logical choice is to go with a patchwork look because most of us addressed the quarter triangle or quarter triangle {X block} in our newly completed centerpiece. If you choose applique, have it be a spin-off of what you used before in the first border round of BBI, not the center. Go bigger, smaller or even more improv-ish, but at least make an attempt to pursue a minor change to the general look of your border or even the applique motif.

By this point in the QAL, you should be a little more accustomed to first checking in with your marinating stack of pulled fabrics. See if any of those fabrics spark initial inspiration. Nope? What do you have an excess of? Maybe start there. Is any of it acting desperate to be used up or perhaps is super sentimental to you at the moment? Is any particular color speaking to you a little more loudly in regards to cozying up directly side by side with your completed centerpiece? Try making easy change-ups such as using a 9-patch block in this quilt even if you used a 4-patch before, etc. etc. The point is to keep the general look and feel of a patchwork border, which should definitely help with keeping good connections going between the two quilts. At the end of this QAL, the goal is to be able to look at BBI, BBII and BBIII and immediately pick out the similarities or at the very least--distinguish the evolution of the creative journey!

WORKING THROUGH MY OWN PIECED BORDER FOR BBII: What I thought made the most sense here {based on my odd, clunky looking centerpiece}, was to take the 2nd border prompt from BBI and re-imagine that. If you remember, that specific prompt was as follows: Put together a border that includes adding 4-patch, 9-patch, 16-patch or even larger patchwork blocks. You can set your blocks side by side {continuous block layout} or 'on point'. This border can be any width you like. It does not need to have the patchwork blocks throughout--use as few or as many patch blocks as you think will look good! Totally up to you if the blocks are improv. style or traditional-look.

A closer look at the piecing

So that's exactly what I did, using a stack of medium green fabrics that were just itching to be used up. The colors were not glaringly right for the centerpiece, but justification came quickly. I reasoned that they could work splendidly to create a satisfactory transition space for the next border after this one. Remember? I told you previously that the last border in BBII was going to have some vines? That is code for applique in my world.*wink  So try to save your previous centerpiece applique motifs for the next prompt if you can.

Seeing as how this border isn't terribly important {in the context of things}, then the whole thing becomes easier--at least in our minds. Whenever we're deliberately making a 'transition' border for a medallion quilt, we don't have to stress about it looking AMAZING. The entire point is to simply create neutral space. If the intent is to have one fabulous looking {more detailed} border later on, then go ahead and take it easy on this particular border. The eye is going to glide over this area to yet another area in the quilt anyway. It only requires a little bit of texture and depth. Don't make dramatic looking blocks and definitely avoid anything that could compete with the potentially complex border coming up. Do something that shows that we care about our quilt without expending so much energy that we lose interest in the final result.

Another way to envision this transition area is to think of is as something that encircles the previous sewn area and somehow manages to say, 'There's that. Now lets get prepared to highlight something a little more special.' Which all happens in a blink of the eye, really. Without that transition area though, the contrast between the two might just be a little too jarring for our eye to properly appreciate. And a one fabric border sometimes just totally kills the sought after vibe. Joy will go there to die. I'm serious. We've all seen it happen! To keep the blocks less busy looking and the feeling to be restful, keep your fabrics few and the colors fairly well blended together or at least flowing well from one fabric or color to the next.

GIVE YOUR MUSE FREE REIGN TO TAKE A DETOUR: Because it's important if you want to see personality shine through in your quilt! As you can see, I ended up having to add a few little pieces of applique to my border anyway.*sigh  Is anyone really surprised? The quilt basically stomped its feet and demanded it and that's my story. Thankfully I was still at the mock-up, auditioning stage with the 9-patch blocks and the green setting triangles. Figuring out 'flow' in the layout and basically yawning at what I was looking at. Somehow it just wasn't enough. My reaction, as usual, was along the lines of, 'What little, tiny change can I make that will have the most impact?' 

I didn't really want to add a lot more color, thinking that would work better in the next border. So, the next step {working within the current prompt} was to think about adding in some applique. Mixing things up. Not replacing the border entirely, but working to improve it. Applique over the top? Applique in lieu of some of the blocks? How many? Going back to BBI quilt, it had to be the bramble motif, but maybe more stripped down? A lot of times, the sensible answer works just fine, so I don't overthink it. In all honesty, if I take too much time with 'improving' this border, I'm gonna get too bogged down in the what-if's to make any real forward progress. 

Annoyingly, I had the little applique blocks cut out and ready for stitching when it occurred to me that actually, I wanted them in the size of the cut-out pieces after stitching. Grrr... Time to cut out a new, slightly larger set! Oh well. Much better than having to add endless applique repeats to the entire border. {Which was fine once, but I don't wanna do it again unless the quilt HAS to have that!}

You can't tell from the pictures, but I will also admit to making the on-point, pieced border waaay too wide. I did it sorta, accidentally on purpose, because experience tells me that it's a great way to play with proportion when you're dealing with improv. Make it too wide and cut it down. Make it too narrow and cry about lost fabric opportunities. I've done it both ways and this was the right choice for this particular quilt. Once I could 'see' how wide exactly the border needed to be, then I went about chopping off part of the previous cream floral sashing strips to better fit with my patchwork and.... otherwise making things fit well all the way around. It's always a work in progress and sometimes it's more seamless than others. No pun intended!

The applique demo blocks

THE SECOND VERSION OF BBII: As you know, the first centerpiece for BBII ended up being a bit darker and heavy looking than I intended, even with the Sujata improv. pieced blocks. That propelled me to have another go at this part of the QAL, just to see if it might be possible to do something radically different with the same exact stack of fabric. There's just no stopping my curiosity sometimes! And that's why I ended up with the light colored, large X block for the 2nd centerpiece. I'm calling them BBII-A {see above} and BBII-B {see below}. 

WORKING THROUGH MY OWN APPLIQUE BORDER FOR BBII:  No, the previous border was not an 'applique' border. It was a pieced border with applique that inexplicably jumped on board. Totally different approach. So, for my 2nd version of BBII, I had a bit of a blank page to work with. Just a very simple, largish X block and nothing else there to help generate ideas. Hmmm...After carefully dividing up the potential fabrics for each version of BBII, then I started playing, all the while considering the overall vibe that I hoped to build on for this particular version.

The larger border background for my BBII--B

Keeping in mind the concept of trying to make this BBII-B quilt lighter and yes, quieter and maybe even softer looking? I had purposefully divvyed up the fabric pull to try and dictate just that sort of outcome. Yes, we can sometimes influence the outcome! Some fabrics might end up overlapping the two quilts here or there, but hopefully {crossing my fingers!}, it's the way the fabrics are placed that will make all the difference in the final look and feel.

All the applique pinned to the quilt, ready for stitching

I also hoped to generously expand out from the centerpiece. To try and make a much larger quilt area, especially before getting into the details of the second and last border. The easiest way was to just place chunks of fabric around the center until the overall blending {and flow} of fabric and color seemed almost organic. Which took several hours. Does it look like it did? Hopefully not! I was having too much fun to care! Though I mentally imagined sewing large patchwork blocks around, perhaps sewing a traditional-look border, it never completely fit with my feelings that this quilt needed a lot less formality and structure. I wanted blending and maybe some surprises in the joining up of fabrics. Purposeful, but not obviously so. Definitely more of a vintage utilitarian look than what was done in BBII-A.

As the play continued, over a series of several evenings, it became obvious that there needed to be a coping border around the X block center too. There was just no positive way to puzzle piece the larger border right up against the centerpiece background fabric without it looking somewhat awkward. That led me to experiment with introducing some darker fabrics for the coping border, and also think about intermixing a little directional fabrics for better energy. Piece by piece I finally got the layout for each figured out, and then it was just a matter of cutting individual fabrics to the proper measurements. Sewing it all together was interesting as once again, I put myself in the position of needing to do a little partial-piece sewing.*ughh... Totally worthwhile when I look at how it ended up, though! Really liking this quilt better than BBII-A at this point!

In a total surprise, the quilt decided that it didn't want repeat bramble motifs all around after all. I guess all that 9-patch sewing from BBII-A affected my thought process more than immediately realized. Next thing I knew, the larger, simple 4-patch blocks were making an appearance and taking over the 'applique' border. Clearly, I don't do 'either/or' very well these days! Don't you love how the lighter, almost white squares help to further lighten the entire appearance of the quilt? I'm just shaking my head how amazing that fabric choice is. One chunky bramble applique motif though and the quilt decided that was enough. Leave me alone. Still have to hand sew all the 4-patches and the berry bramble applique down, but this should go together lickety-split. I like it so much. Really hitting the sweet spot of cozy right now.

IN CLOSING: It just goes to show you that the Improv. method of making quilts is full of ups and downs, little detours and unexpected outcomes. Because our mind simply can't conjure up all the wonderful possibilities waiting in store for the adventurous quilter! When we let our instincts and curiosity lead the way, our improv. quilts become ever more personal and true. Remember, we're making a quilt that has never been made before! It's okay to take the time we need and give plenty of space for simmering ideas. If that's what is needed. Otherwise, do push on. {We will often feel a stubborn hesitancy when it's absolutely vital to take a considering pause.} In a totally unsurprising twist of fate, these quilts we are making will become distinctly ours in a way other people can begin to look at and immediately recognize. That's a Quilty Folk quilt or a Blue Elephants Stitches quilt or whomever it is that is doing the work. YOU. So much fun for all of us to see it happening!
 

So take these very open-ended prompts and let your feelings and instincts guide the way. Go be you doing your thing with the fabric. With the elements. With the gotta-get-this-prompt-done so I can get to the other side if that's what it takes. Whatever! However! In the DOING, you will find your way, I promise.

Next phase of the quilt will probably be posted sometime in September. That's what I'm shooting for but... yeah. We have two weddings to attend, plus another trip to Oklahoma and also, a mini vacay to Canada if it works out. All the distractions and busyness! Again, this next border will have an applique vine tutorial for anyone interested in learning the easy way to get all that figured out. No special tools required!