Need suggestions on how to make a square top...rectangle and bigger

Still struggling with this "Lovely" charm quilt! It is good that I love these particular charms and colors or I would have trashed it long ago! But.. here it the top as I have it finished. I do like it. It is 45 wide by 45 long. I used 4 packs of charms but only liked these charms. The others didn't match as they were totally different prints. Anyway...I worked and worked and finally got this design that I like. But.. now for the problem. It is 45x45. I need it to be at least 65x85 as it will be a blanket on MY bed...yep...first time a quilt for ME!. I purchased these fabrics to match the colors in the charms/prints and I have more of the beige to go with these. Since it is square... how do I make it rectangle..and make it look right? I know just add borders to make it wider, but...to make it longer...means to add borders only to the top and bottom and NOT the sides. I figure make it wider as I need, then add to the top and bottom from there...but...it will look "off" as more borders on top and bottom than sides. I've been tossing this around for awhile, but haven't come up with anything that would look right. Any suggestions?

I'm not sure if I can describe verbally what I'm thinking but I'll try. What if you added a solid wide piece to the top & bottom to unsquare things. Then a single row of your patterned blocks w the same solid beyond that. Then you could put a border around the whole thing to widen it.

Does that make any sense? If not I can draw a pic cuz I'm a very visual person so that would help me lol

Edited to add I love what you have done so far

I would put 2 or 3 borders (various widths) around the whole thing till you get to the width you need. Then I would add a row or 2 of your blocks to each end to make it long enough.

Personally I would have used all the charms, because they do play nicely together ( even if you couldn't see it at the time). ...It would have increased the size of the top considerably. The only way I see you being able to do that is make the borders on the top an bottom wider than the sides.

I don't have any real suggestions, but wanted to say that I stopped buying charm packs because I don't like all the fabrics sometimes too. Unless it's really bright and cute for a baby quilt.

I think yours is coming along nicely.

Take it apart at the rows and put a strip made up of your fabrics and put between each row. Then boarders.

How about a piano key strip on just the top and bottom, made out of your border fabrics. Then solid borders all the way around the quilt?

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Originally Posted by KROQnK9s

I'm not sure if I can describe verbally what I'm thinking but I'll try. What if you added a solid wide piece to the top & bottom to unsquare things. Then a single row of your patterned blocks w the same solid beyond that. Then you could put a border around the whole thing to widen it.

Does that make any sense? If not I can draw a pic cuz I'm a very visual person so that would help me lol

Edited to add I love what you have done so far

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I don't have anymore of the charms. Best I can do is use the fabrics I bought and make charms out of them. But adding to top and bottom only to make it rectangle makes sense...maybe add one wide strip on each side and double that on top and bottom..then add something colorful as final border all around...hum..some thought going on there..thanks for the idea!

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Originally Posted by Iris Girl

I would put 2 or 3 borders (various widths) around the whole thing till you get to the width you need. Then I would add a row or 2 of your blocks to each end to make it long enough.

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That makes sense. And most of it would be "uniform" and you might not even notice the top/bottom are longer in different colors. thanks for the idea

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Originally Posted by auntiemern

Personally I would have used all the charms, because they do play nicely together ( even if you couldn't see it at the time). ...It would have increased the size of the top considerably. The only way I see you being able to do that is make the borders on the top an bottom wider than the sides.

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I wish I could have used the rest of the charms, but frankly....they were totally different in the design! It looked like two packs of different prints were put together. There were these large prints of flowers..and then the other prints were very small bouquets instead of the actual flower like these are and looked more like a weed bouquet than a pansy. And then some had dotted lines going through them. The colors were all the same, but the prints were all so different, I think it would have looked like I just tossed a bunch of prints, that happened to match, together.

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Originally Posted by Hulamoon

I don't have any real suggestions, but wanted to say that I stopped buying charm packs because I don't like all the fabrics sometimes too. Unless it's really bright and cute for a baby quilt.

I think yours is coming along nicely.

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Thanks Hulamoon....I have since topped buying charms. I bought them before I realized what they were. I mean, I knew they were all one line, different colors, but it didn't sink in I guess. Using them all together is just to cluttered for me! That is why I took the ones that I liked from these packs, thinking I could add yardage of solids to go with them....which worked, but I forgot to do the math! I should have made it rectangle...like 4 across and 5 down and then I could have added the borders all around and it'd looked even and normal! Best I can do on this one is make this square the middle of the quilt and then figure how to add around it to keep the square in the middle!

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Originally Posted by FabStripper

Take it apart at the rows and put a strip made up of your fabrics and put between each row. Then boarders.

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That would probably work, but there are so many seams all over and pressed and everything.. I do not want to try to rip the seams out..as I know it would aggrievate me to no end and I wouldn't finish it!

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Originally Posted by starlover

How about a piano key strip on just the top and bottom, made out of your border fabrics. Then solid borders all the way around the quilt?

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Oh, now I like that idea! Make them, maybe about 3-4 inches wide and (whatever the math would be) to make it 85" long...then borders around. I'll sketch it out and see. Thanks for the idea!

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Originally Posted by coffeebreak

I wish I could have used the rest of the charms, but frankly....they were totally different in the design! It looked like two packs of different prints were put together. There were these large prints of flowers..and then the other prints were very small bouquets instead of the actual flower like these are and looked more like a weed bouquet than a pansy. And then some had dotted lines going through them. The colors were all the same, but the prints were all so different, I think it would have looked like I just tossed a bunch of prints, that happened to match, together.

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This was made using all the charms. You could also check out some of the beautiful Iron Quilter II entries. Those had to be made using an entire charm pack of Lovely fabrics,

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Originally Posted by coffeebreak

I don't have anymore of the charms. Best I can do is use the fabrics I bought and make charms out of them. But adding to top and bottom only to make it rectangle makes sense...maybe add one wide strip on each side and double that on top and bottom..then add something colorful as final border all around...hum..some thought going on there..thanks for the idea!

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Here's my 2 cents. I like this idea and did something similar with a large star pattern. There is a picture in my album.

You could add fabric of your choice to the top & bottom to make it longer, and something on the sides as well. When I made the Big Star baby quilt, I wanted it rectangular, rather than square, so I added a row of HSTs to the top & bottom. I sure wouldn't rip apart any of your rows. The Big Star quilt is in my albums.

if you look on e bay you might find the dessert roll that matches your charms.