Border added to Summer Quilt

It only took me about a week and a half once I set my mind to actually doing this! Here's what this looked like previously...

I had put this quilt on my back burner since May because I knew it involved careful piecing, 45 degree angles, and some set-in seams. In the end, I am rather surprise that I only made one mistake and it had nothing to do with the set-ins. The 12 stars around the border are tone-on-tone subtle. In hindsight, I wish I had done them using more of the deeper sage, but I selected a scrappier approach since I was literally working with scraps!

I plan to add another narrower border on next to make it large enough for the bed. This border will likely utilize smaller triangles from all of the more colorful fabrics. I want more of the turquoise and teal accents showing.

Also this week, I have returned to that dreadded place: work! I only had two classes thankfully, and no real prepping or grading, so there was still good sewing time! I am finishing up Julie's Fabulous house for the Forum About.com block swap. I hope like hell it is somewhat fabulous, but somehow I think she might be getting something you might see on the other side of the tracks :-) Not everyone gets to live in mansions! This week I have also puttered with my ALQS piece, but I'm not showing sneak peeks for a while.

With great trepidation, I have sent both of my quilt tops away to be completed. One went to the Amish last week. I am a tad upset that the lady there told me that some of my suggestions for heart-feathers were not feasible because of the many seams. I think that's just a lazy answer. I have hand quilted for 20 years, and seams are just a part of quilting. I am sure that it will turn out nice, but it has me feeling sad that I know that they will not be happy about doing my summer quilt (above) - It has ten times as many pieces! I also sent the Simplicity quilt to be machine quilted. Ginger suggested her mother who is a long-armer, and after viewing her blog, I decided she was much more creative than what I have seen my local quilter do. We chatted about my ideas, and I mailed the quilt off yesterday. My December is going to be a frantic month of sewing bindings (65 feet to be exact!), so I'd better get all other things "off the burners"! I have ordered some fabric too to make my daughter a nice holiday dress. It will likely be smocked if I can muster the energy.

TTFN!...
(ta ta for now, in the proverbial words of Sir Christopher Robin)