I estimated it would take a week of agonizing before I decided on a border  for the Framed Cross blocks, and I wasn't far wrong.  Sometimes I know exactly what a quilt will be like, I can see it in my head and I just make it without any indecision.  Other times, as with this quilt, I have no idea where it's going.  I made the blocks years ago, to use up some red 2.5" strips, then once I'd chosen the setting fabric I became paralyzed over whether it should be on point, or set straight. 

As soon as I dug the blocks out of storage and put them back on the design wall I knew that I wanted them set straight.  On point looked very classy, but I felt this needed to be more a humble quilt.  Then I had to decide how many blocks to use for a rectangular quilt; I wanted a pieced block in each corner, which meant that it would be two blocks longer than it is wide.  It meant that the blocks measured 55"x 77" without borders, and that was a weird measurement.  If I put a 8 or 9" border all round, to get the width I wanted, it would be ridiculously long.  Sigh.  Nothing is ever simple.

And what should the border be?  If I'd had another metre of this madder stripe I might have just used that and been done with it, making the top border narrower.  But I had less than half a metre, so that was out.
Maybe the quilt wanted Flying Geese units all round?  Nope, didn't want that at all.

 Incidentally, these are the squares on point from my Border Tryouts box, and I just covered half of the strip to get the effect of triangles.  I love having all these bits and pieces to play with.

The quilt seemed to want squares, not red but brown, and luckily I had a piece of brown and orange and madder fabric that looked wonderful with the setting fabric. 

Once I had the basic idea for a stepped border it was just a matter of working out the maths, adapting it for a narrower border top and bottom, and then getting it done.  Simple!

I'm pleased with how it turned out, I like the quirkiness of the different borders, and I love how rich all the colours look together. 

That setting fabric is my most favourite of all time fabrics.  It's from the Stone Cottage range, and I had the foresight to buy a whole bolt of it.  I adore it.

 I came across some blue and brown bird fabric online, for a very good price, and bought 5m for a backing for a blue and brown quilt I have percolating in the works. 

When the material arrived, there was a very pronounced green  in the birds, that doesn't show up in the pictures.  I immediately thought of my blue and green double nine-patch, with the bird panel, and changed my mind.  This is the perfect backing for that top, so I'm going to dig it out of the cupboard and start thinking of a quilting plan for it.  I want 2014 to be the year of the finished quilt!