Voting Day in the Stew-dio

Yep, I'm stewing in my studio, and I could use some input. Continuing my self-assigned 'color therapy' project this week, I'll at least have some progress to show over at The Free-Motion Quilting Project on Friday. That's assuming Leah Day isn't knee-deep in bathroom tile at the time. The woman amazes me!

I'm also linking up with http://fiberartistjourney.blogspot.com/2013/04/100th-post-anniversary-design-wall.html, where you'll see hand-dyed and handstitched books made of felt...they're gorgeous!

As mentioned in my April 12 post titled A Change in Scenery, I had just on impulse pieced a colorful, 15- x 22-inch quilt top. What I didn't mention was that April 12 happened to be my dad's birthday and, as he passed away a year ago this week, it was probably more than just some color I was needing when I pieced this. I was trying to boost my mood. 

It worked, thanks to some vivid, jewel-toned batiks and the distraction of starting something new. (I think Dad would understand, having been an artist before he ever became an Air Force Staff Sgt. mechanic and then as a civilian took on a maintenance supervising job that left him little time for drawing or painting.) The April 12 photo of this piece showed the black lines drawn on a vinyl overlay, and the 'stained-glass' look of those lines and colors really got my attention. Now the vinyl overlay is off, the black lines are free-motion satin-stitched in Isacord 40 weight thread, and the quilting, also free-motion, is done. All the piece needs is trimming and binding. But here's what I'm stewing over, as usual: binding in what color? And should it be a print or a solid?

 

 So today I did what I always do if that decision isn't made by the time the quilting is finished: cropped this shot to appear as if the quilt were already trimmed and chose border from the editing options, which allows me to put binding-sized borders in any color around the photo. I picked 5 or 6 different ones, saving each newly bordered photo under a different file name and leaving the original photo as is. The whole process took about 5 minutes.

 

I really don't think there's any faster way to see what binding (or border) color is going to make your quilt pop! Then you can start pulling actual fabrics in that color family, and you've avoided a lot of wasted time auditioning colors that won't work and having to put all that fabric away again. (I don't know about you, but that's a big deal in my current studio, where the drawers are so stuffed you can barely fit your fingers between fabrics. You should see my cuticles. Ugh...and ouch!)

 

After weeding out a couple of the photos, we're down to three choices for the binding: a medium-to-dark green, black (to go with the satin-stitching), and a magenta shade. Here are the three candidates (I'd line them up to make it easier, but there isn't room):

At this point, 'votes' would be more than appreciated. Then, after deciding on a general color, I can audition both prints and solids in that family. I'm hoping you'll take a few seconds to chime in with your opinion. Thanks so much!

Linda