These blocks first appeared on the blog here,  in 2008; then I lost enthusiasm for them and they languished in a basket.  I had another go at finishing them in 2011, but that didn't take either.  It took another 3 years of 'maturing', packed away on the shelf, before I decided what to do with them.  I love making this block, it's so easy and effective, and great for scraps.  I must love it, as I have a set of multi-coloured ones as well.

I sewed all the pieces together quite happily, but now the border is being difficult.  I know I want it done quickly, but something in me just loves to fuss with options and details and maybes.  Nothing is ever simple once I get in this mood, but instead of fighting it I should just power through it, choose one thing and then get it DONE!

It's a long narrow quilt, 50 x 70", which I don't like, but I want it to actually fit a single bed, so I'm not going to make it too wide.  It needs a border to finish it off and bring it to a useable size, but the question is whether to make it a dark border, or a light border, or something in between.  Pieced?  A single fabric?  Long scraps of different blues?

I remembered a zigzag border I made for another quilt;

being me, I cut out a whole border, sewed most of it together and then decided it was too dark for the quilt.  Then I bought a more suitable blue, and used that to make a whole other border. 

The rejected bits are still waiting for the right quilt, and I thought this one might be it.  However, I think it's a bit heavy, and a bit too spiky. 

All those zigzags seem to fight with the centre blocks.  I love the border, just not on this set of blocks; I think it will look good on another indigo quilt I've started, so I'll put those two together and see if it's a match made in heaven.

I tried various  blue and white prints, but they didn't appeal.

 There is an equal amount of dark blue and light neutral fabrics in the blocks, so I started thinking about fabrics that have the same mix of light and dark.  This coverlet print seems to work;

it's not blue and it's not neutral, and I like the large scale of the print.

Hmmmm, what to do with the dozens of triangles left over from the blocks?

Maybe turn them into scrappy Flying Geese and make a little border?

I like this, even though I'll have to make a lot more of them to go all the way round the quilt.  But whatever happened to my quick-fix UFO finish?  I'll be making HSTs for the rest of the weekend, and puzzling over how I'll get that border print to go round the corner nicely.    I must love a challenge, because I keep setting them for myself.  I might learn a lot from solving these puzzles, but I haven't yet learned how to slap something together and call it done.  I need lessons in that.....