Help!

Your choices

On a cold winter day, I'd rather be quilting, but I'm having difficulty deciding on which of these fabrics might be the best border for the trees blocks top.  I'm hoping you'll help me decide by voting for one of the options.  Counter-clockwise from lower left to upper right.

#1, lower left -- an olive green paisley
#2, above that -- another olive green paisley with a lot more red
#3, tan paisley
#4, blue and tan floral
#5, below that, brown and red floral
#6, upper right, brown and red floral
#7, no border at all, just bind it with deep red or dark blue

Thanks for your vote!  xoxo

Hate It!

Greetings from Snowmageddon Land!  Three days of snow, three days of shoveling snow, and three days of worrying if I have Alzheimers and wandered off and inadvertently wound up in the Northern Territory.  Only two days of worrying if my roof is going to be able to hold up under the weight of all this snow!  Knock on wood!

Giving me plenty of time to fiddle with the Trees blocks.  To the left is my brilliant idea of gradient color in the connecting blocks.  I hate it!  I consulted with Sabryin, my color expert, and he said he liked it better without the color.  So, in honor of all the "white" we are surrounded by these days, it's going to represent a forest after three days of snow.  I did decide to keep the border triangles in this mushroom color, though; gives it a nice frame.

And then I have a story to tell.  Friday, when the snow started,  I was ironing Sab's work shirts and my favorite Shark iron just quit working.  I shook it and fiddled with it but it would not resuscitate.  As Snowmageddon poured forth, there was no way I could leave to buy a replacement.  As I pondered my bad luck I spied my old Rowenta under the cutting table.  I put it there long ago after it failed to live up to my steam needs-- maybe ten years ago, actually -- and upon sighting it occasionally my reaction would be to sneer.  It's the same way I feel about Bernina.  "Top of the Line," or so they hope you will believe.  Well, I removed it from exile, wiped it down, added water, and turned it on.  I ironed pants, shirts, and plenty of quilt blocks while feet of snow were dumped on us.

Now that we have unburied the cars and dug out the driveway, the possibility exists that I can replace the Rowenta, but I have decided not to do so because now I like it!  It has been doing a really great job (still not enough steam to suit me, but it'll do) and maybe I'll get my money's worth out of it yet! 

Trees

Not a great photo.  Still learning how to use the iphone camera!

Here it is, just pinned to the "Design Wall," which is just a quilt hanging backwards from a curtain rod.  These are 6-1/2" blocks and, as usual, I had one extra.  Why do I always do that?!  Anyway, now the task is to decide what background fabric(s) to use to pull the whole thing together.  

With blocks like this I usually use a lighter fabric in the center and use a slightly darker fabric in the middle and an even darker fabric in the outer areas.  I tried blues and greens, but didn't like those as much as the tans, so at this point I'm favoring the tan fabrics, which will make a very subtle movement toward the outer areas.  

We will see if I have the appropriate fabrics to pull this off because at this point I am using ONLY STASH fabrics -- not buying new.  

Currently quilting the North Wind quilt "in the ditch".  It will need some supplemental quilting as well, but the test will be if my shoulders hold out.  I know, I can hear you saying "Take lots of breaks."  Easier said than done, as I get rather manic when I'm quilting.  My mantra is "Get this sucker DONE!"  

Happy New Year!  xoxo