Pleats, please

G and Nana's quilt 2012

I have been puttering through my I-spy quilt for probably two years now.

I started it because my Nana made my daughter G a quilt that was I-spy and I had never seen anything so lovely. What an exciting idea! But because I don't have a lot of time to sit in front of a sewing machine, effectively staring at a wall in the basement while my children run crazy upstairs, I decided to hand applique all these tiny little squares onto a white background.

I-spy quilt with polka dot pleats

I started by just doing a mishmash of colour, finished one block like that and realized that I wasn't going to be happy with the results. You see, I don't think I have the best eye for colour.

More pleats for the quilt

Pink pleats for quilting

I imagine that this quilt could look absolutely awesome in a mishmash way, but I didn't have all the pieces picked out before I started and I wasn't confident enough that I would like it. So I went with monochromatic blocks. And because I really can't make decisions, I did it in a colour wash (from light to dark).

Now that I have finished the centre panel (24 blocks each with 16 little squares) and sewn them all together, I have the issue of borders. I feel that someone with a good "feel" for colour would be able to pick a single unifying colour that could bind the whole piece. I don't have the confidence to do that, and at this point, I'm feeling timid.

I did play around with the idea of doing white around the border, like I did in the citrus quilt, but white stains easily. And I wanted something a bit fancier and so I resolved to do pleats on polka dots.

Now each row will be bordered by a pleated block of the same colour. I might be handicapped in my ability to work colour, but I can figure out ways to get around it... What do you think?