Too many choices

So I am pulling possibilities for my final border:

I don't really like any of the above choices. The brown one matches alright but it looks too harsh to me. The blue one is pretty but there is something about it I am not liking. I am not sure what?

 I am leaning towards one of these three below.

I like green. There is a lot of green in this quilt which just happened by chance. I like the shade of the first green one but I am afraid those flowers will make my border way too busy. 

I like the polka dot fabric because it looks cheery and this is a cheerful quilt. 

The solid green seems like a safe choice. There are some solid green pieces in this quilt already so it goes ok. But I am still not sure... I keep thinking that a solid border, or one that reads solid, or a dark border is going to take away from the center of the quilt. I think that is why I kind of like the sage green with the flowers. It isn't really bright or dark and it is still busy so it goes with the busy-ness of the quilt top BUT is it too much busy???. Maybe I would be better off skipping the final border and calling it done? But I think it needs a final border...

Borders

So I thought long and hard on the decision to put borders on my Pineapple Blossom....  My friends all thought borders were a good idea. Then I thought long and hard about what kind of borders I wanted. So I started with a tone on tone white 2.5 inch border. Next I decided to use some of those bonus triangles. I set mine differently than the pattern and anyone else that I've seen. Why did I set them this way? Because I wanted all of my corners to be the same. Maybe it is an OCD thing? Anyway, I opted to piece my triangle borders a bit short and then filled in the corners with more tone on tone white. It's ok...it's starting to grow on me. Now I am thinking long and hard about border number three. I don't want to purchase any fabric, since so far the entire top is made with scraps and fabrics on hand. So I am thinking it is going to be a 5 inch solid green border....maybe...I might change my mind..again!  I am tempted to make a scrappy border using random lengths of 5 inch strips instead of a solid border, but I wonder if it will be too much scrappy? On the other hand since the entire thing is scrappy will it look odd to have a solid border?? I will be glad to have this top completed because I seem to be having trouble making all these decisions!

Pineapple Blossom

Finally I have my Pineapple Blossom top together. I decided on 48 blocks and no sashing. I like it a lot! This is a Bonnie Hunter pattern which is free on her website. I also used her webbing method to put my blocks together and it worked perfectly! I think if you look on her tutorials tab on her website you will find the directions for webbing near the bottom. It took me a few minutes to understand it but once I did it was easy.  I am pleased that my seams lined up nicely. I am trying to decide if I want to put any borders on it. While I like the look of borders sometimes, I really don't like making/sewing borders!! I think I get to this point and just want to be done with it. At any rate I am glad to have the blocks together :) 

I still need to press it good! 

Done!

What does it take to get me motivated? A deadline, I guess! Quilt show for the guild I am in is coming up quickly and I decided I would put this quilt in the show. A friend let me quilt it on her long arm. She is teaching me, but I think I am a slow learner! I'm getting the hang of it though :) and I am super proud that I finished it completely myself. It seemed so much bigger when I was putting it all together, but it measures about 57X67, I believe. It will shrink some after I wash it. 

I have grown to love this little quilt! 

I often use 10 inch squares of leftover or random or I buy special fabrics to piece the backs of my quilts. Sometimes I have extra squares from my backing and I keep them all together. I was super pleased to have enough extras to piece the back of this quilt. It is like a scrap book filled with memories, because I remember each quilt that I made using each square on the back. 

And here is one with my sweet cat, Tangerine! She is a good cat and walked very carefully around my quilt but did not get on it. I am sure if I had left it out there for very long she would have gotten comfy! 

So, recently someone asked me "how long does it take you to make a quilt?" I actually get asked this question a lot! This time I answered "2 years" and they looked at me like I was crazy! Haha, but Truth is, that seems to be my going rate. I believe I started this quilt almost 2 years ago. I should have been able to finish it in 2 weeks to a month, but obviously I work on way too many things at once. I will note that it took me 5 hours to quilt it on a long arm, and that was probably the part of this quilt I spent the shortest amount of time on! Except maybe the backing, only because all of my squares were already cut out. I am so happy to have this finished! It feels good :)

Now I need to finish my challenge piece for the quilt show...time is ticking!