Above are the centers of the two side pieces, before I put any borders on them.  This page will chronicle the process of the right-hand piece, and another page chronicles the left-hand piece.
 
 

I had already added a bit of fabric to the right-hand side of this panel, because the original center of this piece was not as wide as the left panel's center.  Above you can see it after I added even more pieces.  The colors started to get more exciting at this point, as if adding the border colors actually makes the center change its colors.  Of course that's not happening, but the eye as it looks at the whole piece sees different things when there is more border around the center. 
The next step from here is to add a few more pieces to square the piece (the left side of this piece above isn't straight, and so needs some more cloth to fill it out, and the top right needed a bit more fabric).  And after I've added a few more pieces, I need to then cut away some of the cloth, to square the piece up.  The result of these operations is below. 
 

click here to view the Left Panel in progress

Below is the newest version of what the Carters' living room will look like with the pieces as they are now.  The left panel is still just an approximation, but the Center and Right panels are pasted-in pictures of the pieces as they are finished now. 

 

Would you like to see my Vermont studio?

Would you like to follow the progression back?
I have archived my previous studio tour pages.