Project 9 - Interlacing Circles - Borders & Quilt Design

Hello again!

I'm still pumped from the quilt show and have been hard at work on the next project.  First the borders.........

This is quite a small top - 27 x 27 inches, so I decided to add multiple borders to bump up the size a bit.  I had quite a few fabrics to select from - 5 from RJR  Nouveau Moonlit Garden range plus a couple of blenders. I finally decided on 3 borders.

I needed to select 3 fabrics from these 7 choices

After a lot of shuffling fabrics around, I made my choices and on went the first border......

Border 1 - this one seems to look more like an extension of the blocks than a border

Then on went the 2nd border - I was quite pleased that at this point I didn't need to seam the fabrics at all...

Border 2 - 2 inches of deep purple makes a defining border

Border 3 - a large border in a leaf print, the only fabric not used in the blocks.

I really like this design and was anxious not to spoil it.  I left it at this point, pleased with the result.    The rest of the evening was spent looking up quilting designs, wanting to find something appropriate, but still within my capabilities.

Most of today was spent playing around with stencils, practicing samples and generally getting totally confused!

A lot of stencils were tried and rejected (wrong shape/size or too difficult)

Finally, I made my decision.  First I selected a circular design I found in Jenny Carr Kinney's book, Quilting Designs from the Past.  A terrific book, it divides quilt patterns into the appropriate eras for the design of the top.  I was looking for something from the Art Nouveu period - the early 1900's.  The design I choose actually came from the 1920's - 1940's so it's more Art Deco, but for me it was close enough and a good match for the quilt top.

Lots of fiddling around on the photocopier to get the right size

Once I had this one selected, the rest just fell into place.  This is the plan...............

The centre of the circular design will have 4 hearts.

Taking a clue from Carrie's design, outside the circle will have octagonal stitching around the block.

The inner (floral border) will have half circles (hence the glass)

The outer border will have the big feather/cable stencil.

Ok, that's a fair amount of quilting (for me at least).  Marking out the design will take a day on it's own I think.  I'm trying a variety of marking tools - Clover water soluable pencil, Sewline pencil, and ponce powder.  I'm trying to avoid chalk as I'll be using a light box and won't be able to re-do the design if it rubs off (except of course for the stencils/ponce).

Wish me luck!