Spiderweb Borders Complete

The top is finally finished. It measures over ninety inches in each direction which is good for a queen-size bed. The lighting is off. I tried all hours of the day but couldn't get the colors to photograph properly. {And you know it no longer fits on the kitchen floor.}

Spiderweb with all borders

Taking the wider triangles out of the narrow sawtooth border made the rest more coherent. The background of the small triangles is yellow while the outer background is pale green. It makes a nice change from the center.

In many ways these borders remind me of heavily carved antique Spanish picture frames I enjoyed at the Dallas Museum of Art. They are "important" enough to set off the center but they also stand on their own, not an afterthought. The homey, slightly awkward construction pushes it towards 19th century American folk art.

Here's a detail of the color change and the borders. These colors are very close to the actual quilt.

Spiderweb quilt border, detail

The improvisational style of the triangles is more apparent in this photo. Especially on the narrow border, the width of the triangles as well as their points vary. On the outer border the triangles were cut close to thirty degrees. The width and height still vary but not as much as the inner triangles. Because of the similar angle it was easier to exchange foreground and background within the rectangles. {Important discovery: It's very fabric-expensive when you can't change any pieces around but always have to cut new ones.}

Since everyone's taste differs, other people may have stopped at a different place or moved in a different direction. This quilt could have easily expressed several styles.

For instance, here's the spiderwebs alone. This might be the stopping point for a true scrap quilt.

Spiderwebs with no borders

While here it is with only the plain border. A quieter quilt that could highlight elaborate quilting in the border.

Spiderweb quilt with plain border only

With only the applique it could move to a very traditional finish - with our without a second border.

Spiderweb quilt with applique border only

Finally, I photoshopped this to see what the quilt would look like with sawteeth pointing out.

Spiderwebs with sawteeth pointing out,
photoshopped detail

It's interesting to discover the crossroads of quilt construction, the places where your decisions change the style of the quilt. And what a joy that we can each make quilts to please ourselves if we take the time to verbalize our reasoning. Thanks for all the help. You pushed me to articulation; I needed that.

Enjoy the day, Ann