Project Quilting - Apple Blossom Challenge - Borders

I continued hacking away at this quilt today when I got home from work. Instead of working on the interior, I decided to piece some sections of the border I had envisioned. It looked really awesome before I cut it up, but then in practice, it is just way too loud and I think it overpowers the interior of the quilt, so that you can't really see the picture that is forming.



Then, I attempted another border in more muted colors. The border just seems to wash out, and especially around the large flower - it would completely blend in to the border and not have the impact I wanted.



I really couldn't bear to start hacking into any more yardage (it does get tiring you know!) So I decided to see what would happen if I combined the two. I actually like this effect because it is loud where it needs to be and muted where it should be. At least that's what my muddled brain is telling me. What do you think? I finished a couple more petals so you can really see the apple blossom forming.



I'm really going to be mad at myself for all of the pins... because of the additional weight I keep adding, it won't stay on the design wall by itself, so I had to keep pinning things to it. When it's time to stitch everything down I'm really going to spend a lot of time taking all the pins out just to get it off the wall.

I think I'll quit for the night, and tomorrow I will finish the two remaining petals, make up more green background (it's amazing that the hundreds of pieces I cut already don't go very far!) and then start the stitching on Saturday. I don't want to stitch it tomorrow because I'm pretty sure I'll be really tired after all the piecing, and that's a sure recipe for disaster.

Happy quilting!