Time to See All Those 2018 Finishes Together in One Post

Some years there are more finishes than others. The last two years have been especially good ones for bumping the oldest quilts off the list . It's often difficult to want to work on the oldy moldy quilt projects, but they never get any easier to work on by just ignoring them!

2018 Finishes

It's always great fun to slip a baby quilt or two into the mix and have a fast finish. And this year I even made an oversize doll quilt {hmm... is that actually a baby quilt too?}

2018 Finishes

As usual, I kept my hand quilting hoop busy all throughout the year {both of them, if you want to know the truth of it!}. It's become an oh-so-important part of my quilting journey and I can't even imagine life without that little bit of stitching time late in the evenings. Those peaceful, meditative hand quilting minutes have become something I unabashedly crave at times. It positively grounds me in the best way possible and dare I say, nourishes me as well.

2018 Finishes

The program used to group my picture collages didn't have a good 4-picture setting, so I put my Quilty 365 in two different groupings. It's been on our bed for quite awhile now. I adore waking up to it and then later in the day, snuggling back into bed with it once again. Move over husband dear, I got a good quilt now. lol  Sometimes I think that all my quilting years have led up to this one quilt, in terms of making a quilt that resonates on almost every single level.

2018 Finishes

Overall, I'm not sure how much these quilts represent 'me' as a whole--the way I've mixed up the old quilting projects with the new. It's something that I always find very interesting though, these end of the year quilt reviews. You pop over to someones page and in one click, get to see an entire lineup of the years finishes! What fascinates me the most, is the quilting voice that is always so immediately apparent! There's rarely any doubt whose quilt page you're viewing and that's the very best thing about this time of year. I bet most of us could look at any of these picture groupings and immediately tell what quilter made each of those quilts. Love that!

So now with the details: 2018 found me ending the year with 19 finishes again! That kind of suprised me as it didn't feel like so many. Yep, I was on a finishing mission once again. Trying to get some of those very old, not-as-interesting quilt tops out of my hair.*whew! It was very, extremely, tedious at times, I kid you not. Crossing my fingers things won't get quite that bogged down ever again! Want some year end statistics? I do like to keep track just for curiosities sake.

• 1 Doll quilt
• 2 Baby quilts
• 1 Comfort quilt
• 7 Lap quilts
• 8 Bed-sized quilts
• 6 quilts were completely hand quilted
• 9 quilts were a mix of machine and hand quilting
• 4 quilts were completely machine quilted

By the end of the year I had also given away 17 quilts, a mixture of new and old quilts. That was a little nerve-wracking at times. My family lives in dread that they'll wake up one morning and all our quilts will have been given away! hehe  One was given for a church raffle, for helping to make money to buy their building. Still waiting to see who winds up with that one as I do like to keep track of where my quilts end up!

Lots of ideas for the next year. Stacks of fabric that have been simmering on the counters for months and months and need a little bit of attention. Mostly I just intend to quilt the things that I find interesting without getting too far into the weeds with those pesky squirrels! There are 5 or 6 open-ended quilt projects that will hopefully get wrapped up and around and around we go. I loved diving into the orphan blocks totes and intend to try that some more of that. Adhoc. Improv. is definitely still a happening thing and umm..., there is a scrap bin monster that just has to be addressed soon. No ifs ands or buts about it! Taking up way too much room over there in the corner of my quilt room.*sigh Oh, and don't forget about those oh-so-tempting QAL's popping up all over blogland. Probably gonna join in on with the Unconventional & Unexpected one and also, Lori's String Quiltalong. Sounds like a good start to me!

Just Thinking Out Loud

I can't believe I'm staying up late to write this post, but here they are. All five of the quilts that I ended up putting in the NCW Quilt Show. I'll post later next week with pics of other quilts that caught my eye.

Scrappy Tulips

First of all, I went with a quiet but clearer mind this year. No 'comparison is the thief of joy' type of thoughts, 'not gonna nitpick the details', just a solid determination to enjoy. I'm a confident but filled with insecurities sort of gal and quilt shows can be difficult. The reason to do this is because nothing beats going to a quilt show and being inspired. By little ideas or big ones. Wonderful color and out of the box thinking. A saturation of the senses that is almost impossible to get strictly from pictures on the Net {especially when you're dealing with a camera-handicapped person like me!}.

Vintage Red

No ribbons this year which inexplicably made it all so much better. Wacko that I am, it was refreshing to know that none of my quilts stood out over any of the other ones I brought.*sigh  It's hard when people play favorites with our quilts! Scrappy Tulips {the first pic} almost didn't make the cut. The colors don't play nice in some lighting and it worried me. Turns out it was the one that absolutely shown under the lights at the quilt show. Totally melted my heart and I went back and stared at it several times. It looked sort of old timey, but sweet. Really, really sweet and dreamy. Why weren't more people staring at this quilt? lol

Vintage Red was one that I emphatically was not going to enter. Turns out I just couldn't resist seeing how it would look hanging up where I could see it full on. Oh my, did I love turning the corner and seeing that one. Totally vintage vibe going on which just made me smile so big. I totally nailed this idea! And well, I went ahead and looked at some of the other sewing details in others quilts. Uh huh. Maybe my mistakes aren't quite as horrible and blatantly obvious as I thought. Might have to rethink that one.

Quilty 365

I got a little jolt seeing Quilty 365 hanging up for the first time. That quiet looking stitching around every other block is a secret weapon. Can't see it in this pic at all, but all my concern over there not being enough stitching in this quilt were totally put to rest. I really, really loved seeing this one hanging out for others to peruse. I wished so hard it would have been where I could have stood back a long ways and looked at it from different distances. The colors/values do the dance thing. They really do. It wasn't just my imagination or wishful thinking.

Sunburst

I think Sunburst was in the poorest lighting overall. Yes, it's the brand new finish and looks so much better in proper lighting. I'll give it a post all its own next week so you can see how good the Baptist Fan stitching looks and sigh with me over the sweet look to it. Am I on a sweet kick? It seems to be so. There are lurking questions about this quilt, things I might have done different, but overall, it was a good one to umm, not compare to others. Not quite as complex as it appeared all the while I was hand sewing it. Funny how time and 'distance' change our perspectives.

Hills and Valleys

And Hills and Valleys was the other one that I wiffle, waffled about entering into the show. Turns out the lighting was fine for it, just not for me, the picture taker. Mostly I just wanted to look at the texture of this quilt in a hanging up presentation. Great idea as I just stood in front and sort of soaked it all in. Honestly, I'm super happy with this quilt, and yes, it looks tremendously better in person. It's kind of crazy that this quilt was made by me. 5 years ago, this wasn't in my wheelhouse at all--something to feel very good about today as I considered my growth as a quilter.

Don't worry if you're scratching your head over my enthusiasm, I can't see you and won't get my feelings hurt a bit. The thing I learned today is that I am completely, unabashedly making the sort of quilts that make my heart go pitter patter. Sometimes I worry at some of the squirrels that crop up, but a lot of these tangents lead to wonderful surprises and fabulous interpretations--things we might never have explored if we stick to the plan.  Every single time I turned the corner and saw one of my quilts, it was like 'Well, hello old friend'. Makes the effort and anxiety totally worthwhile. It's so good to get validation once in awhile that we do have a style, a look, or even a muse that is personal and custom fitted to us. And you know what?

This year being in the minority with that sort of thing didn't even bother me one little bit. So my quilts are softer, more simplistic, scrappy and naive looking. So what! I enjoyed the entire quilt show! All those sharp looking, fancy machine quilted quilts just got a different part of my attention. Maybe I'm finally reaching adulthood in my quilting journey? Please don't answer that. Thanks to NCW Quilty Guild for being so welcoming! I'll probably be back next year with another stack....

Just Plugging Along

Apparently it's a good time for taking a blogging break, the dog days of summer and all that. I am so tempted, but keep having one more thing I want to blog about first! I feel like I've been working in very 'slow mo'. Homebody that I am, traveling every other weekend starts to feel very emotionally draining. Especially the extra long days of driving where an eight hour drive unexpectedly takes ten or more hours.*ugghh...

Improv. Wheels getting a little hand quilting done...

Why is it that family always has a good reason for filling up our vehicles coming and going. Oh, you'll be in close vicinity, why don't you just go pick up some exercise equipment for me as a favor? And all of a sudden our leisurely trip is taking a detour straight through a traffic packed Portland, Oregon on the way home, instead of being able to skirt the edges like we normally do. That's when I get my hand work bag out and start stitching like a crazy woman. Deep breaths Audrey! Coming from a town of minus 700 people, traffic in places like Portland and Seattle make me a wee bit stressed.

Laundry and other assorted necessary, {but time consuming} chores pile up quickly of late, and of course quilting often gets shoved way onto the back burner at the least provocation. It seems that all the quilting getting accomplished here is with the quilt in the hoop or maybe a little bit of applique. Grab and go kind of stuff. I was so excited and looking forward to working on Improv. Wheels, but now it's feeling a little flat. The time spent with the hoop has been really broken up and something feels weird about the quilt now. Makes me compare it to what having a brown eyed child after having a passel of blue eyed children would feel like. Oh, it's definitely all mine, but still, I'm having to reconnect every single time I pick the hoop back up! It's probably just the normal chaos of winding down the end of summer.  I'll feel better after a good week or two of normal quilting routine.

On a side note, take a look at this gorgeous quilt below! A reader of my blog, Denise St. Sauveur, said that she unofficially followed along with Quilty 365 and then looky, looky what she did with the border! This is the flower block from my Vintage Red quilt just finished up this Summer. Oh my goodness, what a seriously creative streak this gal has. Wish she had a blog to see other work,  'cuz I love this so much!

A quilt made by Denise!

I am, as always, amazed and humbled when someone finds creative inspiration from anything on my blog. It's such a boost to open our email and find a picture like this or a note that says 'thank you' for sharing our quilting journeys in such a public way. Completely made my day. Thank YOU Denise!, for so generously sharing your lovely quilt and allowing me to post a picture showing this wonderful creation with other readers too. It's how we're all inspired, day after day, seeing different quilt ideas merge, blend and grow. I would have never come up with this on my own, but now want to make my own Vintage Red border in a brand new quilt project! Ooh, but there's just never enough time for all the ideas is there?

A Great Summer Finish!

Although I am feeling a bit helpless in the wake of wanting to start so many new projects, my main focus has still been on finishing. Vintage Red was started in 2015 and now, three years later, it is a true blue finish! 

Vintage Red is completed!

I zeroed in on this red solid somewhere in my shopping because I've always, always admired that bold, vintage zing that make so many scrappy quilts shine. My quilt top didn't end up being a scrap bin type of quilt, but I tried to incorporate lots of fabrics into it. My motto has always been, the more fabrics the merrier!

Another 2018 finish

The applique flowers were just a whim, something that I drew up one day and thought, 'Hmmm, this might actually work!' And indeed, in this bright red, they might actually do the heavy lifting.*wink

Nothing like a little applique to make me smile!

I had hoped to be able to put this quilt into this summer's quilt show, but my stitch-in-the-ditch quilting efforts are very marginal. It's a good thing that I added my usual Perle cotton stitching, or I'd be very upset. As it is, you have to be the picky maker of the quilt to even care much. Isn't if funny how much we see our own mistakes and weaknesses? It's like they are blinking at us in neon yellow!

Hand quilting always makes things look a little better....

I'm very happy with the fact that this feels very much like an Audrey quilt. That text fabric, the simple applique flowers, the vintage/mixed modern feel to to it all. Tho I won't subject myself to quilt show perusal, I'm calling it a win.

All washed up and crinkly looking, just the way I like them!

I'm thinking it needs to be the next quilt to grace our bed. Something about it makes me think that it might be making me smile for a good long while....

Finally Getting Quilty 365 Finished!

My quilty 365 quilt is finished. Yay for me! Completely hand quilted of course, how could I do otherwise with this particular quilt? It's become a favorite of favorites, representing a year in the life of my long-lived quilting journey. This project was started in October of 2015 and early the next month I invited others to join me in the fun.

The center of Quilty 365

Some eagerly jumped right in and others waited for the new year to start. It was a roller coaster sort of project, but always intriguing to imagine the end result. So many different options when we all considered layout!

A year long journey!

There were so many gorgeous and super unique quilts made from this prompt that it just blew our minds. Creativity should never be surprising, but somehow most of us never expected the many and varied variations. How could such a simple idea explode into so many different interpretations? Too, I was always sort of bemused that as many quilters choosing to play along as did. Many dropped out as the linkup continued on, but there were a few determined gals who made it all the way to the quilt top stage! {And others who finished later or broke it down into smaller blocks and finished more than one!} A dedicated year long project is hard to maintain....

So glad to see the value changes...

My circles started out as offerings from the overflowing scrap bin, but later on, moved into more snazzy choices from the stash totes. There are a few repeats when it comes to the scrap bin circles, but nothing very obvious. Basically, the scrap bin got booooring so it was time to try something different. And then later, I realized that I absolutely adored the scrappy circles, even more so than the solid fabric ones. Huh. How's that for being obstinate....

And the darker border....

Somewhere towards the end of the year, I took a month or so and started choosing greens and blues with a black background. Just for the comfort and serenity of working with greens and blues and also, to limit my choices. I love how that ended up being a focal point of the quilt, adding some excellent value and depth {plus a nifty border look{, but also, creating a space for the center to react to and glow. Don't you just love a good glow in a quilt?

Quilty 365 feels like a good finish!

Who knew my quilt could end up so very happy looking? If you look closely there are definitely circles that are very dull and dreary looking, no doubt representing a day that was quite glum. That was one thing I never worried excessively about, whether or not all the colors and fabrics would play nicely together at the end. Somehow I felt confident that it would end up looking the way it was meant to be. Warts and all, this is real life embedded deeply into my quilt! And yes, it was leap year, so there's actually 366 circles in all. The name 'Quilty 365' was never meant to say anything other than 'this is my quilty year'.

Vintage Red getting close to a finish....

Now I have another quilt {Vintage Red} with the binding sewn on by machine and ready for that final hand stitching. It will be the 8th finish of the year, which does feel pretty good.

Hey Grandma next up in the hoop!

 As all of you know, I can't bear for the hoop to be empty for long. After an annoying session of sandwiching and pinning last week, I'm finally looking down at 'Hey Grandma' in the hoop. I went ahead and stitched in the ditch {with my trusty Bernina} between all the blocks and now I'm coming back and doing some hand quilting around the applique.

A good place for hand stitching...

It's not nearly as exciting a quilt as the previous two, but it does have its own charm and whimsy. Working with color is always extremely fascinating to me, but as usual, using a predominance of greens continues to mystify. I just haven't found the secret of secrets yet. Must be why I keep giving all the quilts heavy on greens away! Once I finally get it right, you can believe that I will melt into a big 'ol squishy marshmallow--probably feel very proprietary and never, ever give that particular quilt away....

Always Time For Play

I've been having a hard time keeping up with blogging. Must be that time of year! We finally got our heat and air system fixed so now it's easier to hand quilt in the evenings again. Oooh, it was really warm here in the house for a couple weeks!

Vintage Red getting some hand quilting done!

The Solids Challenge project got a little bit of attention this past week. Just enough to convince me that I don't have a clue about math. Somehow my triangles for the border work were cut out without any thought for the fact that they are much longer on the diagonal than the original square dimension.*meh  I'm blaming the heat. That said, now I need to figure out a extra border for in between the bulk of the quilt and the nifty triangle border I have already sewn together. Or I could take it all apart and start fresh. Nahhh... That sounds like an invitation to chuck the entire project into the darkest corner of the quilt room and give up for a few more years!

The outside border work for Solids Challenge quilt

So of course I went right to work..... on the leftover triangles. You know how it is, just throw them up on the wall for a few minutes.

Just playing....

 That somehow turned into a couple hours....

Maybe some sashing?

 And then, ahem! Maybe one or two evenings?

Too late to rip it out, there's too much time invested!

I do so love playing with colors and the original composition, tho perfectly lovely, felt boring and possibly a bit flat.

'Off On a Tangent' starting to turn into a quilt top!

This actually looks better on the wall than what I've captured here with my camera. I'm already dreaming up some interesting border ideas with, yeah, you guessed it, applique. Whew. Good thing I didn't have a whole list of quilt projects begging for some forward progress! Might have to feel guilty for getting completely sidetracked and disappearing down a rabbit hole. The gal at a local quilt store was telling me just the other day that she has finished up every single one of her UFO's! Wowsers, I can't even imagine that ever happening around here. I think there's a self sabotage button that activates any time I even start thinking about making a serious dent in my UFO's.

Oh, and the new Blogger scenario where the comments don't connect with our email? That is sooo.... frustrating. I've tried the workaround to comment on my own post etc. and that doesn't seem to work. Hopefully they will be fixing this soon, but in the meantime, please have patience with me responding! It all just takes a bit more time and that is in very short supply around here this month. I'm headed to Oregon for my niece and nephews graduation so replies will probably be even later than normal. Yep, I'm a slacker when it comes to computer time. If it comes down to a choice between quilting and cruising the internet, the fabric obsession usually wins....  Linking to Pomegranate and Chintz for the 6in6in2018. Just squeaked in on the final day of linkup!

Trying to Move a Couple Quilt Tops Forward

Vintage Red is finally getting its turn in the quilting queue. I found time last Saturday to have my guys get the dining room table moved out of the way and then was able to get this thing sandwiched and pinned.

Vintage Red getting sandwiched and pinned

This quilt top has been waiting in the wings for about 2 years. I have wiffle waffled around about how to quilt it and now have made the decision to do both machine and hand quilting. Pinning took approximately forever, but hopefully, it will do the trick and puckering will not be a problem. And machine quilting a grid first will move the hand quilting along at a slightly faster pace as well. The newbie quilt tops ratio to finished quilts these days? Sadly slipping again.....

A full picture of the quilt top

The red fabric has been causing me a bit of anxiety as to the possibility of bleeding issues. I can't help but worry these days as I've had some bad luck. In looking back, I found the pertinent post where it shows that I had actually soaked the border fabric. What do you know? The question is, did I ever soak the red solid fabric the flowers are made out of?*sigh....  Don't think so. It was definitely washed, but soaked and tested thoroughly for bleeding issues, not likely.

Loving the vintage look of this one....

Oh well. What's done is done and for now, I'm so looking forward to adding some lovely perle cotton stitching to this. Just soaking in the sparky, fun loving vibes of my alien looking flower.

And a closer look....

I've also started playing around with the leftover cream quarter circles that I pulled out of the orphan block totes earlier this year. I adore this dotty cream and black fabric for some reason that is totally illogical. So of course I couldn't just throw these bits away after they were cut from the back of another quilt. At this point I have cut out 64- 7 1/2" mixed print background squares and sewn {by machine} all the cream quarter circles onto the tops. Just a raw edge sort of stitching as I fully intend to do some applique work to cover, similar to what you see being auditioned there in the picture. Too bad that gold and pink print is just a scrap from the overflowing corner scrap basket. It could have found a lovely home with this quilt! Right about now I'd say this is the one quilt project that is definitely making my creative juices sit up and quiver. It just feels free somehow.

Auditioning some ideas...

And back to speaking of the potential of certain fabrics to bleed, I've been soaking some darker pink/raspberry colored fabrics all day. Getting ready to cut out the binding for Quilty 365!

Getting ready for binding

That's it for now. Just plodding along as usual. It's a tough time of year to really get in a good groove with any quilting progress though I try all the time. Our church camp-out is coming up at the end of the month and of course we are nowhere near ready. In fact, our camp trailer ended up with a massive leak in the bathroom area last winter so I can't even go get it cleaned and well stocked yet. We have taken on the t-shirt/sweatshirt orders these past three years as well and it's been more paperwork this year than I expected with all the pre-orders and changes. Fun stuff. So glad I have a permanent check list {for this particular camping trip} on my computer that I print out every single year. Couldn't manage without it.

Today was an off day all the way around. Wound up locking my keys in the car when I went grocery shopping and then later, about ran into a Man when I was trying to find an empty stall in the Ladies room at Walmart. Don't bother talking to me about inclusiveness etc. etc. as I'm not really asking for a political/social opinions rant. Most women would agree that it's very unsettling when it happens unexpectedly {definitely not a normal happening around here}, and leave it at that. Also, to top off the day, my daughter discovered a pretty determined line of little sugar ants invading my kitchen. Ughh.... Seriously? And I just went to town today. Linking up with sew-stitch-snap-SHARE!

Vintage Red a Completed Quilt Top

Vintage Red only needed a little bit of attention.

Vintage Red

Sometimes I have to be in the mood to add on a border. I mean, really, really in the mood....

My kind of fun...

Not that it was difficult, 'cuz it's not like a pieced border. More like cut and sew. And well, some important measurements involved so the edges of the quilt won't be waving at me for the rest of forever.

And then it was a finished quilt top

But now it's all stitched together and I have to wonder... why did I put it off for so long? This quilt top turned out so much better than I ever expected in the beginning. Frankly, it was a slam dunk at this point. Just another one the crazy ways that I approach quilting I guess. Full speed ahead and then procrastinate for months....

Always Nice to Make a Decision or Two

All the Vintage Red blocks are sewn together now. I played with several different ideas for layout. First, offsetting the blocks, then considering some simple pieced sashing. Next I removed a couple flowers and insert a plain block or two. And finally, I lined them all back up in proper rows and added a simple light blue print horizontal sashing. Ta da!

Vintage Red

That's it. Exactly what it needs! Even though I was pretty sure at the start of the quilt that it would have some pieced sashing. Can I just say that I really, really had my heart set on some pieced sashing? But sometimes quilts have other ideas. And sometimes I just don't know what I want, until the perfect solution is right in front of my eyes and everything sort of 'clicks' into place.

On to the outside border. Or not? Nah, it needs a little extra on the outside. Okay, more of the light blue print?

Auditioning border fabrics

 Perhaps with some pieced blue triangles? haha  Gotta keep trying don't I?

Possible piecing

Or maybe just the simple red print. Yep. That's the one. This quilt is just really stubborn or else I didn't believe it could be this easy. One simple fabric border? How often does that happen around here, me being the queen of adding-on-a-border. And another. And another....

Or just a plain red

Okay, okay, confession time. I've been debating this for a several weeks. More really, if you count all the time I've had stitching and thinking about the quilt. It's been hard to let go of my pre-conceived notions and just let it be. It's always good for me to have time to simmer, even if I'm pretty sure what the outcome will be. I don't like regrets and/or the feeling of having rushed a decision. The quirky red flowers look like they're more than capable of holding their own in a simple layout and now I'm okay with that.

Time to soak the border fabric in very hot water and some liquid 'free and clear' laundry detergent. There was a teeny, tiny bit of dye in the water within the first couple minutes and then nothing so far. Better to be safe than sorry when it comes to red fabrics!

Gotta see if the red will bleed

And I have the two flannel comfort quilt tops sewn up and ready for quilting too. Just need to get my regular sewing machine into the shop before I attack these. This backup machine has a smaller harp space and I just don't feel like wrestling these quilts around without the larger space. Plus, I'm a yard and a half shy of having enough backing fabric. Guess I'll have time to find something to go with what I already have!

Rail Fence comfort quilts

Obviously, it's not Monday, but I thought this would be a good time to link up with Moving It Forward Monday over at Em's Scrapbag! Amazingly enough I've had enough time to check out each of my open ended quilting projects {not just Vintage Red and the comfort quilts} this week. It felt good to take a thorough look at everything I have going on. Decisions have been made, ideas are churning and I am almost ready to dive into a new project or two.*sigh  Isn't that how it almost always goes?

Here, There and Everywhere

It's been a crazy couple days. Amazingly enough, there's been progress made, but it's usually in the evening, not exactly optimal time to be taking pictures. I hauled all my Vintage Red blocks downstairs and played with some layout ideas. Will have to let it simmer and see what I think because nothing is making me delirious with joy.

Vintage Red layout fun

But maybe that's just my mood this week? I have company coming, my husbands been sick and for some reason I decided that today is the day to do my pre-Thanksgiving shopping. Have you noticed the price of groceries these days? Sure, I got the olives for 99 cents a can and a free turkey, but wowsers! It takes a lot to feed a family through the holidays!

Hand quilting all done on Big Stars

Guess that's why I've been hand quilting in the evening. Got to lower my adrenaline levels and do some meditative exercises just to get through! lol

Lil' Red Riding Hood

This top may or may not be finished. I kind of like it sans contrasting border--the sort of floating look it has now almost seems to be enough. Almost.

Maybe it's done?

Something else I'll have to think about before I pack it away for good into the quilt top drawers. It's hard to believe this quilt was started with the remnants of two different quilts and five little fat Red Riding Hood fat eighths. I have a special fondness for quilts that allow me to think I'm being thrifty and creative all at the same time!

A different view

My eldest daughter really made my day when she asked about the 'vintage' quilt hanging over the railing upstairs. Oh yeah! That's exactly the word I was looking for with this quilt! But like I said, will have to think about the border a bit more before I know for sure. You know me and how I like the border treatments. Plus, it's not exactly bed size which I usually prefer. Guess that's where the decision needs to be made--to respect the quilt if it's done or try to force another border. These things can get kind of tricky.

More Quilty 365

And of course I'm still sticking with Quilty 365. These are days 22-26! It's not as Christmassy as you might think from this picture. I have a deep coral red along with a raspberry red here in the pic. Still haven't totally figured out why I pick certain colors the way I do and obviously things are not usually radically different from day to day around here. More of a gradual change I'd say!