This week’s progress on the Crow Quilt was building the background and border.  My idea was the blank canvas for the crow and the tree branches should be blue like the sky.   I got out the blue fabrics I had pulled last weekend and pressed them.   Then I laid them on the floor to see how big they were and if they would be appropriate for a background.  Here is the first stage of what we in the quilt world call the audition.   This is where we lay out pieces and fabrics to see if it will work for our design.   Some folks use pre-planned quilt patterns but for me I like to take my idea and build it up with auditions.

Fabric on the left is perfect for what I wanted but too small.   The top sun and star fabric is just too busy even though it is the biggest piece of the four.  The middle scape is about the right size but I decided it was too dark.   That leaves the light blue and lilac on the right.   Process of elimination got this figured out.

The border was next.  I kept the darker middle piece out with the paler one for the border auditions.   I had some blue strips that were used as binding on a prior project and pressed that back flat again.   The other binding I found was greens done in diagonal strips.   Here is the test of what those look like.

Not impressed by the green and purple binding pieces.   So, that got put back into the stash bin.  Next I took another batch of prior project’s left overs.  These are strips sewed together and cut into triangles.  I laid them out in several auditions.

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This just didn’t thrill me.  Next I looked some books I have and got the idea to make half squares from scratch.   I had some 2″ strips from the strip quilt and used those to build a couple of feet of them.   Next weekend I will piece some more together.   Here are the pictures of what they look like with the binding border on both sides.  Hope you enjoyed the audition day and see how a design can come together.