We had a buttons session with the heart wall hanging. My girls tested various black and white button combinations on the piece. It’s fascinating to me how buttons and beads can change the character of a design. I like to use them as part of the design, to accentuate borders or patterns.
I also like to hide buttons in patterns or against a same-color background. This adds a subtle visual interest that most people seem to like a lot. When they find a hidden button, it’s like finding a treasure.
You may be able to make out the crochet trim I made for a border around the outside of the quilt. It will look good, once it is sewn down. Well, the next step was to crochet a red trim to go around the heart. I crocheted a short length of spiky trim, so I could see how it would look.
It didn’t look good.
I tried a plain trim. It didn’t look good.
Clearly, the plan in my head wasn’t going to work in real life.
This sounds frustrating, but this is my favorite part of doing wall hangings. I love the challenge of blending or accentuating borders and patterns within a piece. I love to see how my mental picture compares to the real-life picture.
I spent a pleasant evening trying different trims around the heart. This pleated trim won. It softens the transition from the brilliant red to the black and white. It is sheer, so you can see the patterns behind it, which helps the transition. Now the inside of the trim was pretty stark against the red heart, so I sewed red baby rickrack on top of the edge of the pleated trim. Again, it blurs the border between the white trim and red heart.
