My design wall is rarely empty; once a finished top has been photographed it's folded and packed away with the others (80 at the last count) and then a new project goes up.  Sometimes, in between projects, I'll use the empty wall to display some orphans or blocks that have me stumped, to see if any ideas occur to me.  If I won't be able to sew for a while those problem blocks will sit there as a background; I can see them as I work on the computer, and my subconscious will try to find a solution to my design problems.   All in all, that expanse of white wall just has me itching to fill it up again.
I wasn't ready to tackle the Economy borders, so I put the pretty tumblers back up.  It took about an hour to add the extra 2 rows of tumblers, and then I lived with it a while to see if I was happy.  I was, so the borders were cut and added. 

Another quilt that is too big for my design wall.

 Mereth looked at the inner border and said, "You have to change that, it doesn't go at all,"  but I like it.  And I pulled out every conceivable fabric trying to choose that border, and this is what I liked. I'm fond of saying "Done now" about choices that I've made.  Not unpicking, not choosing anything else, it's done now and I'm moving on.

The backing is going to be a king-sized Laura Ashley doona cover that I found in the op-shop for $2.  It's the most luxurious sateen, the perfect shade of duck egg blue, and I will have 8 metres of gold cord when I finish unpicking.  Got to love a $2 backing for a quilt this size.

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Well that went together quickly at the end.  While I was sewing the blocks together I was thinking about fabric that would do for the borders,and I remembered a top I made in 2012.  I'd chosen the borders, cut the strips and sewn them into long lengths, and suddenly another fabric demanded to be the borders.  So I put the prepared borders in a drawer for later, and went with the new choices.  This top was the same colours, so maybe those old borders would work.

I went digging, and amazingly found them exactly where I thought they would be.  That doesn't happen very often around here. And my hunch was right, they were just what I had in mind for this top.

So the borders were attached in triple quick time, and now I have another top to mark off my list.

I love it when things all come together, with not a lot of effort on my part.  That means I can get started on the next project even sooner.  I think it's time to tackle the borders on those Economy blocks;  they are going to take a lot more work than this one did.

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The North Wind blocks are on the design wall, while I try to work out a plan for the final arrangement.  I'm sewing them into sets of four, and then I'll rearrange them so that the various colours and fabric are evenly distributed.  I'd like to audition a few border ideas too,and get an idea of what the finished quilt will be.

Of course I've made things difficult for myself.  In the early days of this project I sewed some units into this block,

and some into this one. 

Now I'll have to piece them all together on the design wall, adding other units to join them into larger pieces that actually fit together.  That's one of the pitfalls with working on things sporadically over a long period of time; you forget what you were doing to start with, and carry on with something else.  Oh well, once I have them all in one piece it won't matter, it's just that I have to concentrate, instead of mindlessly sewing sets of four blocks.

I started this as a true leader-ender, just cutting up scraps and leaving them by the machine to sew in between my 'real' sewing.  They've been brilliant for that; they've stayed in the background instead of taking over, as so many of my leader-enders do.  But I have 105 blocks made, and it's time to make some decisions while  I sew the last 15 blocks.  I still have a lot of pieces cut, so I could just go full-steam ahead and get this done, or continue to sew it between other projects.  So many decisions.

It will have plain borders, there is enough triangle stuff going on in the middle, it needs a calm border to frame it all and contain it.  I'm leaning towards a greeny-brown, or a browny-green.  I just hope I have something suitable in the stash drawers, because I don't want to be visiting patchwork shops trying to find the perfect borders.  I had enough of that with the Checkered Lattice.

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I'm going to have to take stock of all the projects that are on the go, and decide which ones get put at the top of the list.  I'm not used to having so many started; I have plenty of UFOs, so I'm used to that, but these are all WIPs that I"m currently working on.  I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed, so I need to sort things out.  There are piles of pieces and stacks of fabric everywhere and I need to make some sense of it.

1.  I need to collect all the leftovers from the Farmhouse quilt and organise them so I can make more blocks for an on-point version.

There's two more boxes of bits, I probably won't have to cut any more pieces for the second quilt.

2.  Economy quilt -  finish Flying Geese for borders , design borders and add

There's a few design decisions to be made, and that's putting me off.  I jut need to get this up on the wall and work at it until I've decided what to do.  Actually sewing it will be the easy part.

3.  Shirtings Churn Dash - need to cut more strips and then pack the shirtings away

4.  Blue brown Ohio Star  - I'm loving these 6" blocks, I cut the little triangles with an Accuquilt die, which make it so easy.  They go together perfectly, despite the tiny size.

5.  Pretty Tumblers- borders - this need 2 more rows, then borders.  The fabric is all picked out, the pieces are cut, just have to put it up on the design wall. Maybe I need two design walls?

6.  Beloved - I'm saving these blocks.  I have about 30 kitted up, and fabric selected for 30 more.  I won't let myself sew them just yet, because they are such fun.  I need to do some work and finish things off before I  get back to these.

7.  Country Cousin  -  these blocks use the same pieces as the North Wind blocks, so they are my backup plan to use all the leftovers from that.  They will eventually be leader-enders, once the North Wind  blocks are done, these will take their place.

8.  North Wind - on the design wall and galloping towards a finish.  I'm sewing these and the Ohio Star blocks at the same time, and it's hard to say which is the main project, and which is the leader-ender.  Once I start joining the North Wind blocks together they will become the priority sewing.

At least I've finished the blue quilt, so that means I can pack up every last bit of blue fabric and put it away.

There are a huge number of leftover strips and scraps, and I'm debating whether I should cut them into squares or just give them to Mereth.  She's not as enamored of blue as I am, so I don't think she'll welcome all this blue.  Oh well, by the time I've finished cleaning up I will have made a decision.

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