Designing an Inner Border

I have been pondering over how to combine my Feathered Star and my embroidered Blocks for the last few days. 

I set the embroidered blocks on point, using the dark blue used in the feathered star to border the block and provide a division between the blocks and the floral print I also used in the feathered star.  I was very pleased with this look.

This block on point measures 20 1/2" unfinished. 


This is where the problem begins - my Feathered Star which is to be the center of the quilt measures 30 1/2" unfinished.  The blocks are to surround the center star.....but when I place two blocks beside the center - they measure 40" compared to the star's 30"

This basically means I need a 5" border all around the star in order to get it to match the block surrounding it.  I feel like a 5" border surrounding the star is too overwhelming and will detract from the star.

I started looking on line for border ideas, and simply could not find anything that looked right to me.  I did see one used quite often which I thought would be perfect - but it would have to be 6", and then I would have to come up with something to get the blocks up to 42", sigh.  I did notice on some of the Feathered Star quilts, folks added a border around the star that matched the background and finally I had an idea!

Using EQ8;  My solution was to add a 2 1/4" border of white around the star, which is nice, as it floats rather than having the star points right up against a contrasting border. 

Then I made a pieced border of the small dark blue squares with the white.  This border finished at 1 1/4" wide with the little dark squares being 3/4".  I used Seminole piecing to make this border row.




I added a 3/4" border on each side of the Seminole pieced border using the same blue paisley fabric used in the star.  I wanted it to be 3/4" to match the dark blue squares.  Also the dark blue border around the on-point blocks is also 3/4" and I felt this consistency would add balance to the design.

Right now the border rows are not sewn together but rather just pinned in place on my design wall, and I will study it again tomorrow to make sure I like this layout.  But I think I have a winner here and am relieved that I finally came up with a solution.  The picture on the right includes the 2 1/4" white border.

I do love to do Seminole piecing and am happy that I have finally used it in a border on a quilt.  This quilt is going to measure 80" square unless I do a little something else to lengthen it.  I prefer rectangular quilts and may add a border of some kind to the top and bottom, but time will tell.  Knowing me, once I get to that point I may be so ready to be done with it that it will just have to be a square quilt.