Finally I settled on the right fabrics for the borders of the birdy quilt.  It took me ages!  I think I took about 10 photos trying to get the right LOOK.  I think I was distracted by what the original quilt looked like, instead of focusing on what I thought looked good to me.

 The fabrics that I finally chose really work well with the colours, especially the reds, in the centre applique.

The black I love as it frames and contrast everything you put with it.

You will notice that I did not mitre the corners.  As I like my quilts to look like old quilts I do not mitre them.  People have pulled me up on this at different times. The quilt history people will tell you that the mitred corners became popular in the 1970's or 80's with the resurgence of quiltmaking.  I have lots of books on antique quilts, and it is very hard to find a mitred corner.

 A lot of these fabrics came from my friend Penny.  Penny has a online shop Pennylane Patchwork, and is getting ready to open a real shop in Victor Harbor in South Australia.  We did a little fabric swap.  I won some fabric pieces from a show I had entered into.  The fabrics were nice, and good quality, but not the types of prints I would normally use.  Both the black fabrics were part of the swap, and this print to the left I got from her once before.  The red wavy fabric was in my stash.  I love serpentine fabrics, and buy a bit when I see it.

 This is a little close up of what the fabrics look like all together.  I think they are a good match.

While I am in the mood, and before it gets too hot again (eek!) I think I will get this basted and ready to quilt.  My plan is to follow the idea of the original quilt, and do parallel diagonal lines in the borders, and echo quilt the inner part.

I am going to try a new batting.  For several years now I have been a huge fan of  Quilter's Dream cotton batting, and use it exclusively.  I buy it in from the distributors in the USA, to resell on my website.  With the price of shipping now, and the exchange rate, it is getting very expensive to get the big boxes in.  I am going to try 50% cotton and 50% bamboo batting called Legacy.  I just love the feel of it, and I think it will quilt nicely.  More on that as I progress.

 Just so you don't feel like you missed out......the following are the  "audition"photos

this was a favourite and nearly won

 

love this as well

I hand pieced the first border to make sure it was on the lines correctly

 Can't believe the top is finally finished!  It sat in the "To Do"box for about 4 years.  No need to rush these things, is there?