Borders on

    Borders on and into the stack of projects "to be quilted" it goes.  It may be a couple months before I can do machine quilting,  I need much better control  and strength of the left arm.  
Anyway,  I chose a mottled burgundy fabric for the border to pull out all the reddish tones in the center.  Wish the photo color was better to show this.
   I measured the length in several places before cutting the border strips for the sides......and took the average of 30" for the length.  Using a pencil for marking, I squared up the corners and sides.  The border pieces were lined up with the marked line and sewn.  Then everything was trimmed.  Only one spot has a bit of fullness---at the top---but I believe I can work it in with quilting.

 
   I had a question about doing a braid with a black or burgundy separator strip and how would that look.   So for your comparison, here is a  photo is  Higher Hope that I made a couple of years ago.  It is one of my favorites and is hanging in the sunroom right now.
    It is the same basic braid pattern using
2 1/2" strips---just a scrappier version.  The braid runs are  separated by a black strip about 1 1/2" wide.    Any and all scrap strips were used including some floral fabrics.  They were arranged by value, blending from one dominant color to the next....usually.    Sometimes  it was hard to define/determine the main color of a fabric,  so I just jumped to another color and started again. Rather than refer to this one as a watercolor or a true color wash, it is what I call blended.  
      Not sure what I will pick up next....maybe just some easy piecing of cobblestones from batik leftovers.  I sure I will find a spark of inspiration.  Happy stitching.