A Teal Dilemma

Since spelling is not my strength, I had to look up the word 'dilemma.'  I actually thought there was supposed to be a silent 'n' tucked in there somewhere, plus I rearranged the 'i' and 'e'.  I wish it looked correct now, but it still looks a little off to my brain.  So the blessing of having to look up the spelling is that I was also able to read the definition.  It's a problem with two solutions, neither of which is very satisfying.  There's an idea of riding the horns of a dilemma ... you can choose to sit on the left or the right bull's horn, but neither is very comfortable.

So this quilt and I have fought through it's existence so far and we're not finished yet.  It's intended to be a Christmas gift, so there's an urgency which prevents me from throwing it to the back of the stack until I can re-purpose it.  The idea of slicing along diagonal lines and mixing it with other fabrics to make something neat keeps popping up.

Not enough border fabric as shown in the top to actually do this.

Since there aren't many fabrics available in this color, I was very limited.  There's lots of fabrics with true teals, but this is a green-teal.  Sort of a lighter tint of the recipient's wedding colors.  The camera makes them look like they don't match, but they are closer in person.

I thought the border needed something a little darker and came up with this ....

First border choice

 The black/gray/light greenish colors in the inner border just contrasted too much.  It's awful.  I tried moving it around to other parts of the house, but still no joy.  So I took it to my local quilt shop with hopes of finding something else.  The owner is a friend and I appreciate her honesty.  She told me that she can see why I don't like this one.  It's not quite my style to be so monochromatic.  If she'd just tried to soothe my feelings and encouraged me to leave it this way, I'd still not been happy with it and I'd wonder what's wrong with her.

We chose a batik for a border and binding and I went home, cut some strips to place over the black here and .... still didn't like it.  I don't think I have a photo of this option, but it just didn't work either.

So I dug through my fabrics (again) in desperation.  Christmas is coming and I'm in trouble here.  A small (20 x 24) piece of dark green/teal batik which reads as a solid revealed itself.  I hoped for more, but at least there's enough to replace the black.

After seam ripping and stitching, I've reached this stage, which is much, much better.

Current stage

The quilt is happier with that dark teal/green inner border and then the batik striped border.  I could stop here, quilt it and bind it with the same striped batik.  I don't love that the outer border would be so small, but it could work.

Or, riding the other bull's horn .... I could add the gray/teal wider border, then bind it as planned with the striped batik (cut on the bias, not straight of grain as shown).

Other choice.

I do like the balance of a wider outer border.  But I'm just not wild about the actual fabric.  There's some gray in the stripe to tie it into the rest of the quilt, but no gray in the center of the quilt.

Probably, I'll add the gray border and quilt it quickly before I can change my mind again.  For now, it's time to go to work, then stop by the shop one more time for the backing fabric (with a 50% off coupon which I hope hasn't expired).

Just for fun, I googled some images of bull's horns to add, but I don't want to use any photos that are copyright protected.  Those things are sharp and with force, will penetrate a man's body with alarming ease.  Ewwww.  Perhaps I've overstated by case by calling it a dilemma.

Nature report .... lots of rain the past few days.  Since I didn't hear the owls calling, I decided to stay warm and dry instead of sitting out at night with raindrops running down my camera.  But, I saw another 5 deer and a lone coyote in the past few days.  (grin) I feel like National Geographic has moved nearby.  Maybe soon those owls will get ready for another meal and come back to hunt.

The contents of the recycle bin were a bit tossed last night.  Darling Husband and I are blaming the coyote even though we have no proof.  Poor guy.

Enjoy your day!
- SeeingStars