African quilting designs wanted

I don't think that even if you choose to do big bold zig zags all over the
border that it will take the focus away from the center. The blue
background, along with the orange squares scattered through the quilt, draw
your eye in to the middle. The animal print squares are all a little
different, so that will take your eye around, as you look at each one.

Think of the border as a frame. Beautiful paintings have elaborate frames,
often to balance the painting. I love the idea of zig zag quilting design on
the border. I would either do blue, to match the background, or orange, to
accent those squares, but I would do straight-line quilting, not zig zag.

I especially love the blue outer border - it adds real zing to the overall
composition! I had to quilt a narrow (about 2" wide) border on my Xena quilt
(mostly African and animal prints), and I did continuous circles - OOOOOO -
I looped around each circle, then 1/2 way around again, and onto the next
circle. It was like doing figure 8s on their sides. It was easy to do,
especially after I did several. I did try to aim for having a complete
circle exactly at each corner, which sometimes meant the circle right before
that was a bit squashed to get it to work out right. I don't think anybody
but me notices that, tho! G

This looks like it will be fun to quilt, and I can't wait to see the
finished version! Nice work, Mel!

--
Wendy
http://griffinsflight.com/Quilting/quilt1.htm
de-fang email address to reply


"Mel Rimmer" wrote in message
...
In article , Ethne Slusser
writes
Mel I'm from South Africa and I can tell you that big and bold is the way
to
go

Ethne in PA

Thanks, and thanks also to everyone who answered. I've been googling for
African designs, African zig zags, African quilts, and I think that just
plain zig zags are very African however you do them. Your advice makes
sense, Ethne - keep it big and bold, and keep it simple.

I know that invisible thread won't show up, but the relief patterns it
makes against the fabric will, if only in a subtle way. The border is
too wide to leave unquilted so I have to do something in there. But I
like the zebra skin print so much (my brilliant sister, Steph's, idea) I
don't want to detract from the graphic black-and-whiteness of it.

Am I being too cowardly? Should I take the "big and bold" lesson on
board and do thick satin stitch zigzags all over it in black red yellow
and green? Then again, it's only a border, I don't want to make it the
focus of the quilt. That should be the funny cartoon animals. Oh dear.
I'm thinking too hard about this again :-(
--
Mel Rimmer

Mel, this is lovely! No, you don't need colored zigzags on the zebra border.
But IMO the stars would pop out more if they had a very thin red edge.
Roberta in D

"Mel Rimmer" wrote in message
...
In article , Roberta Zollner
writes
Got a picture?
Roberta in D

http://www.askv41.dsl.pipex.com/mhp/...y/HPIM0015.htm
--
Mel Rimmer