Doll Decisions 2

Currently I am hung up in the decision mode on the doll quilt.  I am convinced of the fabric for the wide border (coral paisley), the thin border (stripes), and the binding (coral basket weave).  The placement of the fabrics is up for grabs, narrow stripe border next to blue quilt body (upper picture) or next to coral binding (lower picture)?  I think I like the upper picture option better, but it is not a strong preference.

But, in cleaning out my closet looking for UFOs, I found a few extra block parts leftover and I think I want to incorporate them in the border. Since I only have three complete hearts I will need to cut up the other partial hearts. I want seven hearts in total and I think I can make four more hearts out of six partial hearts- maybe... seam allowances may be my downfall.  My backup plan is fewer hearts or using the basket-weave coral instead of the solid coral for the hearts.

I have always liked it when a quilt pattern kind of pokes into the border and so I am considering doing this with the spare hearts.  This has the added benefit of avoiding a pieced border.  Yes, the border will still have seams, but not same fabric to same fabric.  Rather, it will have seams where the hearts are inserted, as if it were planned.  And it was... sort of. Here, if I insert hearts, I prefer the stripe closer to the binding so the blue background is uninterrupted in a chain of hearts (lower picture below).

Here is the lower edge with a heart inserted, both options. The striped border is inside on the upper picture, and outside on the lower picture.

My goal this weekend is to get the borders on so I ... WILL ... BE ... DECISIVE!!!   And I did decide how to incorporate the signature blocks.  I will make a pillow out of the backing material and have them be sized smaller and patch-worked as the back of that pillow.

After success with completing the binding on the Halloween wall-hanging I was on a roll and broke out the binding for the tool quilt for my husband.  I sewed it on this week and I just have left to hand-stitching the binding to the back. Oh, and a label of course. I have no pictures of the full quilt yet but you can some details of Mary Ann's free motion quilting on it here.  My goal is to also at least start the hand-stitching on it this week.

This was a productive week for me.  Several projects finished, some of the small ones started and finished within the same day.  What an encouraging boost!

Completed projects:

1. Halloween quilt
2. 2010 Winter Olympics Knit Cap
3. Frog Burp Cloths
4. Ladybug Pillowcase
5. Hoooo Pillowcase

Ongoing projects:

1. Tool quilt - hand sew binding
2. Doll quilt - add borders
3. Hexagon Mask quilt- layout begun but overwhelming
4. Chicken quilt- located backing and potential binding

No progress:

• Pick design/pattern for baby quilt- request colors pink, pale purple, pale lime green
• Get Fire and Ice from closet and decide backing
• Grinch quilt

This week's stats:
     Completed  projects- 5 
     New projects - 3 (all small enough to double count as new/completed in same week)
     Currently in progress- 5