I have had this piece of fabric for a couple of years. I got it at a fabric sale at a friend’s home with mostly Japanese fabrics. I wasn’t sure how I wanted to incorporate it into a project as the motif is pretty big. I thought about using the fish as appliques, but two out of the three have a bit clipped off the tail. So it needs to be put into a project as it is. As I was cleaning out fabrics in the last couple of weeks, I found the pebble fabric, and it clicked. I would make a koi pond, with the pebble border as the rim, and a green outer border for a lush garden setting.

Auditioning the two borders on the fish fabric, it is apparent that the two busy prints would need a plain border between to calm them down. I auditioned a gold fabric that seemed to match the gold fish.

Next was to determine how big the pebble border should be. Using the Fibonacci sequence, doing the borders in 3-1-2 inches would be aesthetically pleasing. This is a three-inch inner border, a 1-inch plain to separate the prints, and a 2-inch outer border. But, a three-inch pebble border looks too big.

So, I flipped the plan, and looked at doing the borders in a 2-1-3 configuration. Yes, this is better.

It is the perfect print for the project.

Measure and cut borders are easy.

When I started to put the gold border on, I realized it needed something lighter. So, I put an off-white border on instead. This color picks up the highlights in the fish and the lightest pebble.

Instead of the vine print, I cut up the trimmings from the panel, along with some coordinating fabrics into strips, then cross cut into 3-1/2 x 2-1/2-inch bricks for a pieced border. I worked on this during Virtual Retreat.

The pieced strips came out amazingly close to the exact length I needed.

After attaching the first one, the vine print would be in the corner, and I thought it would be great if I could fix it so all four corners had the same print.

By removing the vine print on the end of the strip, I could add a different print, and move the vine to the corner.

I added the last two borders, and did not need to replace any other bricks. I really am happy with how this turned out. The light border lightens up the dark center section, especially since I used so much dark green in the outer border.

Next was to load it on the longarm. The backing I chose is a wonderful flower print of morning glories in the same colors as the koi. But, it is just barely enough to use, and the selvedge edges are on the short sides. So I was forced to load the project sideways rather than lengthwise to the leaders. I had planned to use a pantograph of watery ripples, but now this won’t do. It has been telling me all along that it wants to be custom quilted, and now I have an even more ambitious plan.

I started the quilting over the weekend, and I’ll show you that progress later. So far I am pretty happy with the results, but my plan is expanding beyond custom quilting to heavy embellishment and it is going to be a lot more work! I just hope it comes out the way I see it in my head. With a busy week ahead, I may not get a lot of progress made until later in the month.

What are you working on this week?