Coronacrazy Made it to the Totally Finished Up Stage!

Finally got the Coronacrazy quilt completely finished up! It's one that I started just after the lockdowns happened in 2020. Basically just went out on a limb with the rows of arcs or 'hills'. Really no clue what was going to happen from there!

Another 2024 finish!

Lots and lots of applique in the quilt. It was so very time consuming. But what else did I have to do at that time? ha!

The outside flowers are my fave

Later on, after adding on the leaves in the outside border, I discovered that one of the fabrics used was a bleeder. That didn't make me very happy. After struggling with all the ways it could be addressed, I just went ahead and took those 5-6 leaves off and soaked them until the dye was done bleeding out. Very annoying to have to 'redo' any work at all, but much better than ruining my quilt over something so simple.

Will probably have to keep this one for myself...

Although I generally wash my quilts directly after finishing up the binding, this time I've decided to wait till later. Just want to enjoy it for awhile and not have to worry about something else giving me problems. Like maybe one of those orphaned flowers stitching into the center of the quilt? Ughh.  Don't want to take the chance right now! 

So awesome to see all the orphans being used up!

It's such a sweet quilt. Hard to believe it was started during a time when my mind was practically exploding with worries and stress!

Never know where I'll end up these days...

Love seeing the texture from the hand quilting take shape and give it all a little bit more depth. It's definitely a quilt that needed the little bit extra time and effort.

Still love the quilt colors too

I've also got my Gold Crossroads quilt ready for the last bit of binding stitching. I ended up doing a crosshatch pattern throughout all of the quilt except for the circles. Love the simplicity and old timey charm it brings to the quilt! And the colors of this quilt just kill me. Love how soft, sweet and cozy it feels to me. This is a quilt that I just sighed into every time I was adding quilting stitches. Very relaxing to work on!

A cozy look to this one

I've also been working a little bit almost every day on the Old Fashioned Wildflowers quilt. Have all of the vine work stitched down and am working on the flowers and leaves now. I thought {so optimistically} it would only take a week to do all of the hand stitching, but it's going to be tough to even finish it in two weeks and three is more like it. Really wanted to plow through this before getting to the hand work on my Bramble Blooms quilts.

Still enjoying the background blocks for the base

Which have actually seen a bit of work too. There is now an extra 2 1/2" on each of the outside border rows of the BBII-A quilt. It's a very subtle cream and lt. tan, every other square addition but I think it works well for basically expanding the area for the vine detail. 

An easy way to make it larger and not detract

It's one of those things that I didn't want to do, but now I'm thinking it adds something special to the quilt. Will definitely lift the overall look of the quilt. Bonus!

Now for the applique!!

Lots of quilting stuff on the list and mustn't forget, a quilt project for my SIL too, which has a Christmas deadline. Why oh why do I do these things to myself? 

Quilting My Way Through the Summer Heat

Somehow I ended up with a quilt top that has a brown background. Still shaking my head over this one, especially after all my 'I'm so tired of brown' rant last year. The fabric has been all stacked up and simmering for at least two years. I've always really loved how the colors melded together and just seemed to hold a lot of promise. 

Sort of completed quilt top--ready for applique!

But then I could never get started because a cream background {my default} just felt boring. And the blue that I eventually settled on could never gain any proper traction. It wasn't until I had these cream off-cuts from the back of another quilt that the quilt really started taking shape in my brain.

Really hopeful that the applique will not look too clunky 
when it lands alongside all of that busyness

From the very start, the whole idea behind this quilt was that I would be making some sort of 'background' for a largish-tree holding a bird or two. I guess now you can see that the brown, pieced together section over on the left side of the quilt will be where the Folksy tree will reside.

Always a puzzle getting the random bits
and pieces of fabric to play nicely with each other

It was interesting piecing together this quilt, quite absorbing if you want to know the truth of it. First I worked on the rows of baskets, separating them by random widths of free-cut strip sections. Mostly I just didn't want them to be stacked in tidy looking rows. It wasn't until the four main rows were sewn together that I realized the quilt needed to have more length.

Will be covered by a lot of applique, but it's
nice to make sure it doesn't look hideous!

Which worked out very well as I suddenly had an urge to put the other half of the chopped off basket there at the top on the right of the quilt. Isn't that charming? Had to throw together one more 'half' basket too as I was lacking that particular piece of the quilt. Wouldn't look right with just the half basket at the top, right? Needed another partial basket for balance.

Loving the look of the random setting and
partial basket blocks.

All the while, I was carefully cutting and hoarding the strippy slabs, trying to ensure that I wouldn't run out. When most of the quilt was sewn together, I all of a sudden realized that I wanted a smallish brown area at the bottom of the quilt too. It didn't look right without the strip sections so in this case I had to go digging through the trash.*whew!  So glad there was just enough, even though I had to sew two really narrow pieces together at the far bottom right at the quilt!

Wish I would have had wider strips for 
the bottom of the quilt...

Overall, it went rather well, all of the myriad mistakes and seam ripping necessary to power through aside. I am super thrilled with the look of the cozy blues and violet coin strips throughout. There's one blue plaid fabric that is actually a shirt that I stole from my youngest sons closet a few years before he moved out. I mean, he never really wore it! So sweet to see it working so hard for this quilt.

Loving the look of this centerpiece! So sweet
that it's mostly all orphaned applique bits!

I also managed to find time to finish up the applique for the Joy Basket quilt. It needs a little trimming and then next will be decisions about the border or possible borders? to attach. I thought there would be the word 'joy' appliqued onto the centerpiece as well, but so far it's just not working out for me. Will hold the idea in reserve until later in the quilt and maybe try again. 

Starting to see the texture take shape

The hand quilting has been going very slowly on the Coronacrazy quilt, though I am working on it most nights during the week. Just can't seem to peel myself away from the phone and dumb scrolling early enough in the evening to get much done. Really annoying.

Had a hard time figuring out what to quilt
in the dark green border area.

I think the problem is that there is soooo much applique and there is a little more effort involved in running the needle through the quilt sandwich. Just doesn't feel quite as meditative as I generally prefer so yeah, I'm practicing avoidance. Ugghh.  May not even get 12 quilts finished up to the completed quilt top stage this year if I don't knock if off and get busy!

Good Vibes Getting to Finished Quilt Top Stage!

What a summer. I really need to quit having any expectations and just learn to go with the flow. Had to have my computer worked on last week and for some reason our internet is moving slower than molasses the last while too. We're supposed to have fiber optic in our area of town some day in the future. Knowing this county? It's still gonna be a few years.*sigh

Coronacrazy progress

We've been having a heat wave, but there's still hand quilting in the evening as long as the air conditioner keeps working. I was finally getting into a groove with Coronacrazy {all that stitching over applique gets a little tiresome}, when the baby quilt decided it was high time to be first in line. Well, or me deciding to quit procrastinating? 

Baby quilt in the hoop

I usually don't have two quilts in the hoop at the same time, but my grandson is three months old today! So crazy how slowly things have been progressing this year in the quilt room. Just can't seem to get back in the normal rhythm at all. I'm blaming it all on my husband! He has a funny way of constantly disrupting my schedule. It's not always for a long length of time, but once I get distracted from a specific goal....

Good Vibes is a finished quilt top!

I previously stated expectations for the next Bramble Blooms prompt. Was hoping to have a post up by the end of June or first of July, but yeah. It's not happening. It's coming along, I promise! Just needed to clear a couple things off the list so my brain can relax and figure out how to write the next post.

Loving these colors

One of the few things on the list was this Good Vibes quilt. It's part of the Circle Game series that I've been doing for quite awhile. I take the cut out circles from behind one quilt and try to use them to jumpstart yet another quilt. 

There's just something about tulips

This particular quilt also somehow morphed into a chance to try my hand at making 'awkward' looking tulips once again. The first quilt with something similar was Spring Forward, an olderquilt that has lived in our living room ever since being finished. It's a sweet, whimsical quilt that always makes me smile, so why not go that route again?

Very cozy

There's definitely something about working with these very large circles that intrigue me. They also sort of make me feel half crazed because they are just too big. I mean. How many different ways can you re-imagine these things in a quilt? But you know me, try, try again until it's not fun anymore! When it gets to be tedious, then I'll probably quit. Maybe. Sometimes the challenge just seems to spur me on!

So awkward looking!

I had the idea for the little cross blocks at the top and bottom of the quilt almost from the start, but wasn't sure how they look color-wise etc. After seeing the appliqued border tulips start to come into play, then it got a lot easier. The brown was the obvious choice, especially with the peachy background color. I'm really liking the simplicity, especially when paired with the up/down placement that helps turn the corner into a happier vibe. It clearly brings a little extra energy when you deliberately choose not to place them exactly side by side. Really easy thing to do, but ahem! It helps tremendously to measure properly before cutting all the little extra pieces.

 I'm still sort of laughing at the brownish peach background fabric behind the tulips though. Don't know if you noticed, but that fabric is definitely different than the background at the top and bottom border of the quilt. It has got to be one of the most unlovable fabrics of all time. Someone gave it to me years ago and I've never found a quilt at all receptive to using it until now. In fact, I was pretty sure it would pull the entire vibe of a quilt down if I did use it! So thrilling to finally find an excellent use for it and see it making magic with the rest of the quilt. Yay! How does that happen? Oh, I just adore working with different color palettes and seeing various colors and tones sort of wake up and start smiling. Isn't working with color the very best thing about quilting? 

Binding prep always feels good

I won't tell you how many mistakes that I made bring this particular quilt top together. How the border math did NOT work and I had to puzzle piece too much of it together. Somehow we have managed to come out the other side now and I am super happy with the quilt top as a whole. Am really looking forward to seeing it with the quilting texture some day! 

Don't know if this makes sense to any of you fellow quilters, but I am now in a much, much better mental space to tackle the writing {and organization} for the next Bramble Blooms post! It really helps me to work on several different projects {all at the same time} for some reason. Always has! When I just try and focus in on one thing, then my brain starts feeling super sluggish. I only have one more thing on the list before moving on, and that would be fully completing the baby quilt. Another couple days and hopefully that quilt should be totally wrapped up! Then we'll see about the next phase of BBII....

When You Start Something Almost Beyond Your Control or Imagining

So here we go, Coronacrazy borders are all stitched down and the top is complete!*whew  This one has been a long slog, in more ways than one. It was started in March of 2020 on a total whim, with the end result always being up in the air. In fact, the end product wasn't even of much concern until later. It was all about keeping busy-hands, mind, body and spirit.

Coronacrazy borders are on

Every decision made after the initial start of cutting and stitching down the 'hills' has been a reaction to what came before. At this point, I'm being forced to call it a completed top. Is it insane that part of me wants to keep going? What in the world could possibly be added {at this point} that would benefit though? It feels done except for the quilting and so that's that.

Looking at a completed quilt top!

It's such a bright and happy quilt to be called 'Coronacrazy', but that is exactly what was happening back in the moment when this quilt was started. Covid-19 craziness. All the beginnings of the stupid lockdowns and turning our world upside down. I wanted/needed lots and lots of distraction.

Love the few areas where the hills stop suddenly

Lots and lots of stitching will do that for you! Later on when it became necessary to think about a border addition, I knew it had to be applique based. With a vine. Lots of leaves. I threw the solid pieced border in between so as to have a good transition. Worried about the color a lot, but went with it because that's what the center of the quilt requested.

One day I was looking at the calendar on the wall in my quilting room and there was the perfect inspiration needed to get going on further applique. According to the information on the back of the calendar, the artist's name is Meera Lee Patel. 

Always trying to honor the inspiration

As you can see, my applique vine is very loosely based on her drawing. Still, why not give credit where credit is due? Her beautiful work sent my mind down the rabbit trail of different sized and shaped leaves and the flowy look that was trying to take shape in the corners of my mind.

Looks like the corners weren't too choppy

I chose the leaf color based on what was going on at the center of the quilt with all those scrappy-look abandoned bits and pits of applique auditioning and prep work. At first it was easy to make lots of different shapes and see the good. Then later on, I wanted to rip several of them off and fine tune them, get rid of the blockier shapes. Nitpicking is not fun because it seems to be terribly contagious. In that vein, I only allowed myself one re-do. That's it. You're done!

Yes it all lays flat

Stitching the leaves was simple, repetitive type work. Just takes time. I never regret any of it afterward though it always makes me feel just a touch anxious at the start. Do I really have enough motivation to finish this? And yet I always do. Even if it's in fits and starts. There's something so wonderfully satisfying about completing the applique on one border side and then the next, checking off the steps until everything can be sewn together as a whole. Then there's the exciting moment when you can start appliquing the various parts and pieces to the corners, over the top of the seams. And wallah! Eventually, there comes the moment when it's ALL DONE! 

Super dark leaves for better value effect

It's just almost magical.*sigh  I came across this little excerpt about creativity by Nick Cave {below} right around the time that I was finishing up and couldn't believe how much it resonated. Though he was speaking to writing, it absolutely can apply to quilting!

The words that resonate

Though I feel a bit down in the dumps these past days, {just recovering from a few days of being sick}, I know adamantly that there are many more quilts in my future. The applique prep work was on a pretty good roll before the sickness and then of course all screeched to a stop. Now my brain feels fuzzy and disconnected and I wonder? What was I thinking? What are THOSE colors and are they worthy? What kind of a design is that? and on and on. All those questions of self doubt and papercuts to the ego. So, so timely to read this excerpt now and just blow it all off. Who cares what anyone else thinks? Yes, I'll be making some blah quilts here and there and so probably will you. But if we keep on pushing forward and paying attention to this 'animating spirit', we're gonna eventually end up with some greater gifts to the world. I think Coronacrazy is one of those gifts. It's such a beauty, totally beyond my imaginings. Which is why it had to start so simply. 'Cuz I'd have never have started it otherwise! I wouldn't have believed in it what it could be. Especially back in March of 2020!

January Stitching

I've been spending a lot of time doing hand work this past week or so. After ignoring Coronacrazy for much too long, once again, I have found the motivation to do a little hand stitching. Which sorta morphed into a LOT of hand stitching, but who's complaining?

Coronacrazy border work

This picture {above} as taken several days ago when I thought there might be time to post, but then the opportunity vanished. As of last evening, I can happily state that border #3 and #4 are either finished or getting loads of stitching as well. Funny how I don't want to work on this quilt project at all and then something clicks and it's really all that I want to do. Just can't work in more than a couple hours a day of hand applique or my elbow starts feeling it sooo I usually switch to hand quilting and then I'm okay.

Petra's quilt

This is my sisters quilt top that I agreed to hand quilt for her. I made the top back in the winter of 2006 or 2007. She had bought all the fabric in a period of about two or three years and just didn't think she had the skills or mojo to make 'what she wanted'. Which was ironic, because she couldn't really even articulate what that might be. Eventually we reached an agreement. If she showed me three pictures of quilts that she liked, gave me free reign with her fabric, allowed me to add a few fabrics of my own choice, then I would put together a quilt top for her to have quilted in her own way, on her own dime.

Fabrics are all close to 15 plus years old

And yes. She paid me a small amount to piece the quilt top together, mostly so it would get done and not languish behind all the other projects that I always seem to have on the go! Anyway... I took those three quilt pictures and her fabrics--started playing with ideas, finally drawing up this particular plan.

Basic blocks

Her fabric was a mind boggling mixture to me at the time, with such a wide range of bubblegum pinks to orangey corals, lots of creams, taupes and that mushy paisley print I finally settled on using in the setting triangles. In the end, I only added a couple cream fabrics for the center, and then went and bought the cream text fabric for the outside border. I remember deliberating on whether or not to add a brighter color for the border, but fell down on the side of letting the 'glow' work its magic from the 16 patches alone. 

I've always felt that if she had made her own design, it would have ended up being much wilder and sharp looking instead of the soft, cozy thing that I tend to gravitate towards. But here we are and it ended up being a huge learning curve for me in being bolder in using fabrics that don't necessarily look like they belong together! We had a little sit down just before I started cutting fabric and I made her tell me, 'Are you SURE you want all these fabrics in the same quilt?' lol

Marking the quilt top

It's been an interesting experience to come back to it so many years later. Wowsers, has my piecing improved! Who wouldn't thunk it when I continually cut off points on purpose? The corners of the quilt were very warpled which makes me think that I could not have properly trimmed each block to size. Hmm... I managed to get it sandwiched and pinned regardless and now all the machine quilting part is behind me.*whew! Haven't ruined it yet! Just stitch in the ditch around the blocks so maybe the quilt will hold up when her two year old mauls it on her bed. I'm expecting this quilt to be very well used...

My daughter snagged a picture of me while the quilt was in the process of getting marked, and we both agreed that I'm much more smiley when quilting. Even when doing a part of it that I don't particularly care for! We had just gotten through a long day attending a funeral of an older friend, and I had mentioned that when I died, don't bother wasting money on a floral casket piece as they could just throw a quilt over the casket and be done. She argued that one needed to go inside the casket with me otherwise I might be mortally offended. And on and on we went with me telling her 'Don't you dare waste a quilt by putting it in the ground with me!' 

Black humor. It's what our family has always done and seems to be good for getting us through. It's been a tough month as one of her co-workers suddenly dropped at work the other day, having a heart attack and dying right after the ambulance got her to the hospital, and now a family friend dying unexpectedly while home alone. Just makes you think. And stitch a lot if you are a quilter like me....

The Applique Adventures Continue

It seems like a good time for an applique project update. Anyone who's followed me for any length of time knows that there is always a stack of hand work lurking behind the scenes, or at the very least, in the corners of my mind.

Applique done on Improv. HST Medallion border

The impulse tulips have been all sewn down onto the Improv. HST Medallion quilt. They were surprisingly quite a lot of fun to stitch, so simple and joyful! I'm leaning very hard toward adding on a very large surround of much larger improv. half square triangles. Still trying to figure it out in my head as I don't want a huge mess of bias and wonkiness to have to iron flat and attempt to square up. Will probably attack it in 9-patch units {or larger}, similar to the center of the quilt. All very 'fallish' colors, so not a huge urge to dive in just yet.

Crazy Daisy ready for stitching motivation

After the Improv. HST Medallion applique was finished, then I realized that whoa.... there was only one project actually prepped, Crazy Daisy. All the flowers were drawn onto the fabric pieces {since last October!}, but nothing was cut out. While cutting out the flowers though, I kept thinking about a project that has been haunting me for well..., forever! 

Starting the freehand lettering for the Jubilee quilt

I've drawn up so many different variations of this particular quilt through the years. Insanity. Or Yearning. You decide! My wastebasket should be full to overflowing if all the wadded up papers were put into it at once. Finally, in sheer frustration at where this other quilt {Melon Patch Rows} was going, Nowhere! 

I desperately cautiously combined the two ideas. It's not like I have anything to lose at this point. Really, Melon Patch Rows is clearly a quilt who doesn't know anything about who she wants to be! Then, after literally hours of prep work getting the first three rows of letters ready to stitch {some of it very grim and determined sort of effort}, it's suddenly the only project that I want to work on. Go figure.

Three rows of letters cut out and stitching started.
Last two rows of letters drawn and ready to go.

Oh yeah. We so.. do NOT want to ignore the muse, do we? This is an 'Augusten Burroughs' quote that resonates deeply with me of late and these stitched words, offset with the Melon Patch Rows, might just end up being a huge mangled mess. Deliberately so if my instincts are steering me aright.*sigh  And... just for the record, this quilt has now become, possibly by default, my Jubilee quilt. Yay me. Instead of the complex and intensely beautiful applique effort I had been imagining, I'll be doing a wordy, utility look quilt that most probably will reveal just a little too much about my eccentric quilting attitude. Ugh! I'm squirming. How is it that solving this meandering, problematic quilt idea ends up being the only answer that feels right for the Jubilee question too? 

Border work on Positive Thinking

Moving on to something a little more interesting, I attempted to work on the border for Positive Thinking. Because of course! It has to have a border! Somehow the ideas have kept coming back around to an attempt at clamshells, something I've dreamed about for a very long time, but kept swatting away as entirely too much work. They are just so yummy though! And why not? It's not like this is a quilt that will only look good with ONE specific border idea. It's fairly open to all sorts of grand ideas.

This time I caved and ultimately gave in to the one impulse that made me smile the most. I think there were about 11 clamshells cut out before I realized that the template needed adjusting just a bit. The bottom of the clamshell is not exactly centered and I'm already nervous about the handwork! It doesn't help that one side of the quilt is already not going to match up 'math-wise' with the clamshells. Yeah. One of those problems that will work itself out one way or another after we actually get there....

Initial phase of the border work for Coronacrazy

Then there's the Coronacrazy quilt which has all the vine stitched down on the border pieces. It's 100% ready for moving and grooving on, and my brain acts like it's stuffed with cotton. What? Huh? Can't even figure out where or how to start on the leaves. I have vague ideas, things drawn out and a fairly good doodle to riff off of, but yeah. Nothing happening here in la la land! So frustrating as there are at least three or four other good applique ideas impatiently waiting their turn for the big start.

It just feels like something needs to happen with Coronacrazy before investing too much creative energy into something brand spanking new. Which is why I will continue working on other things already in the works, all the while letting my mind ponder and mull things over until something breaks. Or maybe I should say 'sparks?' And if it doesn't? Then I will get all the various parts and pieces out sometime here very soon and force something. I know it's all there if only there was this one thing called focus....

Extra Time Just to Get it Right

Do you remember the Big Kiss quilt? Over the winter I decided that it probably needed more attention and pulled it out of the finished quilt top drawers for further scrutiny. {Or maybe it wouldn't quit haunting me?} After much pondering, I finally decided to go for it. The applique that I decided on has been prepped and waiting for quite awhile, just patiently waiting their turn in the queue!

Big Kiss quilt top is finished! 

It's kind of a bold looking border, but very simple in terms of hand work. Then of course,  I made it more complicated by deciding to put a little crown on the top of the center flowers {for the pomegrante effect}, and then later, eight leaves on each border instead of four. Just can't leave well enough alone!

Close-up of the border work

I did something that rarely happens around here, with the fussy cut flowers on the ends of the vines. There was only a fat quarter of that particular fabric, so there wasn't a lot of cutting options to choose from. Some of the flowers look better than the others! It seemed like they needed to be cut out larger, but that wasn't possible either.

Fussy cut flowers

In the end, I just made that specific fabric work {regardless of its limitations} because it really looked to be the best option for the overall look I was aiming for! In the case of the flower below, I actually pieced four different pieces of fabric together from that same fat quarter. Super obvious up close, but not at all noticeable from a distance. Whatever. It works, right?

Very pieced flower

Though the border fabric looks quite black in some of these pics, the previous color is probably closest to reality, more of a dark gray. That charcoal-ish gray really makes the colors pop and lift up the entire quilt. On another note, I knew there was a bit of bias stretch in this quilt and wowsers! Adding the borders made that even more obvious. As I was sewing, that is. 

The Whole quilt

I carefully measured and pinned so that I didn't make things worse and in fact, it looks quite a bit better overall. Crossing my fingers that the hand quilting {which will happen later on} will ease out the worst of the rumples. It usually does! 

 So glad that I went with my instincts and tapered the vines down in a slight curve instead of keeping them in that straight line that I originally intended. Looks loads better this way! The only thing that I seriously regret at this point, is that I wish the little pomegranate crowns would have been pushed down further behind the flower. Oh well. What's done is done! The quilt top definitely has a cozier, more personal vibe than it did before and really, that's all that matters. We are all very happy campers now and this top is going straight back into quilt top drawers for a good long nap....

Loving the brighter colors!

Moving on to a different project, here's a few pics of the 1991 quilt that somehow snuck into the hand quilting line-up. It was never, ever my intention to hand quilt this one, but since the HST Medallion has been finished up, I've been gravitating to really basic hand quilting efforts.

An old project

Sometimes it doesn't even matter what is in the hoop, it just matters that the stitching can be done with a minimal amount of thinking, marking and effort! Call me crazy, but I just adore hand stitching through strips and log cabin type quilts are an easy pick-me-up.

30 years married in June!

This is such an oldy moldy quilt start, I almost don't even like the color palette anymore. Most of the blocks are from the early 2000's and all the house blocks were finished up by 2007. They represent the first seven homes my husband and I lived in after we were married, one of those 'good idea quilts' that never really gained enough traction to flourish.

Very soft colors

At some point, I did a Marie Kondo thing to the quilt room and purposefully got rid of many of the parts. This top is what happened when I decided to make a few comfort quilts from various orphan blocks here in the quilt room. Whether or not this ends up being given away though, remains to be seen. This quilt finish would have positively delighted me even ten years ago. Today, I'm working on much more exciting things, though of course, I'm happy to bring it to a proper finish.

Interesting to see it without the words...

Speaking of which .... Here's Coronacrazy, back for another day in the sun! It's trimmed down now, with a strong looking sashing added on. I loved the look of the edges before the sashing was sewn on, but alas, there's no way to finish up a quilt without adding fabric onto the sides, be it sashing, border or even a binding!

Working on the border

As per usual these days, I had to make-do the border, as most of the yardage I have is in too small of a piece for the entire surround. That's okay though, as the look is very appealing to me in it's rough form. Add a little bit of applique over the top, and I'm practically swooning!

All prepped and ready for hand work

See? There's always a silver lining if you care to look for it! I ended up using a striped green fabric for the vine and what you see in the previous picture is where I determined to sew it onto the border. All prepped and ready to go! One large applique flower is cut out and ready for hand work too. It had to be figured out before moving forward as the vine will be tucked underneath at both sides of the flower. 

The vine will actually only be sewn down within a couple inches of each border length {for now} as several parts of it will need to 'flow' from one border to the next. A little bit of extra time and effort trying to get this all figured out 'prior' to sewing the borders onto the centerpiece, but very worthwhile in the long run. Though it might not be obvious to the casual reader, I do actually expend quite a bit of effort trying to sew as much of the applique onto smaller pieces of the quilt, rather than try and work with a whole big quilt! If I wasn't such a make-it-up-as-I-go sort of quilter, things would probably go along much more smoothly. Hmm... maybe not.