Happy Days BOM - quilt top centre

Three months of a gap since my last update on my Sarah Fielke 'Happy Days' BOM quilt wasn't part of the plan, but I am here today to report what feels like significant progress to me.

I finally stitched the last three of those border wreath blocks, enjoying the mix of low volume fabrics I chose.  After that, there was some late night shuffling of blocks last weekend just to get a better balance of colours across the quilt top.  I didn't move too many around, just made sure that the red wasn't allowed to dominate by congregating in that lower left hand corner.

Once I had the layout settled it was time to tackle step down piecing.  This was my first ever attempt at step down piecing and although it took a wee bit of concentration, I did eventually get a rhythm going and the top came together without the frustration I feared it might.  Sarah's video instruction and BOM notes were very helpful as always.

Of course, it took some time to get all of this stitched together so it was MUCH later than expected when I finished and I did suffer quilter's hangover the next morning!  I would not fear step down piecing again and in fact, welcome it for the variety it allows in a quilt construction other than just straight sewn rows.  One day I shall try it again, like when my WIPs list is much smaller ;-)

I know the late night photography and lighting has killed the beautiful colours in the fabrics of the quilt but trust me, it's very pretty and I am REALLY happy to have completed all of the blocks and the piecing, trying all sorts of new-to-me techniques along the way.  I hope anyone joining Sarah's new BOM for 2017 will enjoy it every bit as much as I have this one.

So now this quilt needs some borders and I am musing what to do.  There are three border options provided by Sarah for the BOM but I am considering doing something different from any of those.  There are a number of reasons for that. 1) I don't want this quilt to grow much bigger for the space I hope to hang it in eventually and Sarah's border options are quite substantial, 2) I need something that won't take forever and a day to do given my current dearth of sewing time and 3) the border options provided don't feel really "me".  Hence, the musing.  I don't want to make a choice that doesn't do justice to the work done so far, so I shall ponder a little more before making my fabric calculations and getting on with it.

I hope it won't take too long, though I do suspect that putting this quilt on my Q1 FAL list has been somewhat optimistic!