Need suggestions to fix outside border

[shadows4]

I'm fairly new to posting on these forums because I usually feel that my work is not up to the standards I want, but it seems to me that everyone here is very supportive of Newbies, so here goes: I made this quilt for my son recently. It's entirely paper pieced and took me months to find the fabrics and put together (from August to May). Then I rushed the quilting on it to get it done for our guild's quilt show the weekend before MQS. I'm not happy with the feathering on the border, but mainly with the quilting around the feathers. I really struggled with knowing how to quilt the small area left after quilting the feathers. I feel I need to take most of it out but am not sure what to replace it with. Can anyone help me on this? Closeups are on my webshots page. It's called Night Stars. I tried to put a picture with this but it's not working.

Jeanne

http://community.webshots.com/user/shadows4

[CherylUribe]

Are you going to rip out all of the back ground? Feathers?

I don't know that I would rip the stitches out. If I had a quilt which the quilting bothered me I would leave it, learn and make changes on the next one.

It looks great! If you are going to re-do maybe make the feathers extend outside of the borders just a little more (towards center). Since the quilt is called Night Stars maybe a windy wave or some swirly curls for the back ground.

Hope this helps!

[shadows4]

Cheryl:

Thanks for your ideas. I had thought about taking out the stitching that shows up in the orange part of the border. It's where I had the most trouble and shows up the most. I like your suggestion to extend the feathers, etc. into the black area. I used Rainbow thread on the border, and that would really show up beautifully in the black. I'm getting frustrated with myself because now when I look at the quilt, I concentrate the most on the part I'm unhappy with instead of seeing the parts I'm happy with and learning from it all. Your comments helped with that too.

Thanks alot for your ideas and comments. Sometimes it helps to have someone else either confirm a feeling or make suggestions in a positive way, and you did that!!

Thanks again,

Jeanne

http://community.webshots.com/photo/548996449/2965844470088172132mKGNVp[/img]

[Charlene]

Jeanne,

I wouldn't take out the stitching. I would either just leave it along or if it really bothers you, why not echo stitch in/around the feathers to fill in more of the space. That would be a nice compliment to the "mctavishing".

Char

[White Rooster]

I wouldn't take out the stitching either. I think you did a great job and I love what you did in the background. Charlene's idea of adding some echoing is an option but remember, only you see the imperfections. The rest of us just see a beautiful quilt. Please keep sharing your work.

Happy Quilting,

[JoAnnHoffman]

Don't rip. It's fine, everyone will think it's great. If you don't like it, just learn from it. Next time you will do something different. You're being too hard on yourself. I always tell my longarm girlfriends who do the same thing you do, remember, "It's just a blankie with stitches on it holding three layers together" that's all it is. You will loosen up with time. I use to do the same thing.

Have fun and enjoy the process.

[shadows4]

All of your suggestions are great, and you've helped me alot. This quilt is for my son, who wants it more a queen bed size now, so I'll be adding some black around the borders. Maybe that will give me the chance to do some of the things suggested. I'll concentrate on quilting that better and forget the other I was unhappy with.

When I quilt the black I'll be putting around it, do you think the rainbow thread I used in the border would be a good choice? Then maybe some quilting into the middle black areas (with the Rainbow thread) as you suggested, Cheryl, would tie it together.

Thank you so much for your input. It has really helped me. I do usually concentrate on what I'm not happy with, only in regard to my own work, though. I need to stop doing that and look at how much I've learned since I got my machine last July.

Jeanne:)