Fall Colors Win The Coin Toss

Which one do I choose...........

I used to have a system of first quilt top finished, first to get quilted, but that has apparently fell by the wayside of late.  In my stack of quilt tops, I have two quilt tops that need quilted on a long arm machine (for which I have no immediate funds for).  I also have two projected baby quilts that I can blow out whenever the need arises, one quilt top that is essentially just a camper quilt (why hand quilt that?) and then, I have everything else.  It pretty much comes down to what I'm in the mood to work on--heads, tails--these lovely, lovely fall colors apparently.:)

Getting another quilt ready for the hoop....

The main part of this quilt is from the Better Homes & Gardens Quilt Sampler Fall/Winter 2007 magazine.  I had to change up the vines and leaves from the original pattern because they felt a little too structured for me, going completely around the blocks like they did and being so perfectly perfect if you know what I mean.  I borrowed leaf designs from Blackbird Designs 'Midnight Silhouette' pattern because I felt that these sprawling, free flowing leaves suited my improv border so much better.  I took the funky leaf blocks on the bottom of the quilt from Sue Spargos' book 'Contemporary Folk' and somewhere along the way, the owl from the end of her book went ahead and jumped onto my quilt too.  Isn't he adorable?  I almost hesitated to use him because the owl thing is such a fad thing right now and I don't want to obviously 'date' my quilt.  Oh well, this has been such a fun quilt for me, being able to use so many of my reproduction fabrics plus an 80's reject fabric my sister gave to me many long years ago.  It's not a perfect design, as once again I let my enthusiasm for additional border work get the best of me, but it makes me smile and that seems to be a wonderful reason to keep right on quilting.