I’m making a lot of progress on Spring Bouquet.  On my last update, I was just starting the borders.  I’m happy to report that not only have I finished cutting and prepping all four of the borders, I’ve actually got two of them machine appliqued in place!  Here’s what one of the borders looks like:

It’s very looong, isn’t it? There were a lot of pieces but I’m really delighted with how they turned out.  Each of the central stems is a different brown batik and none of the flowers have the same colours or leaves.  It makes for a really lively feel.  In the individual shots, you can see how the leaves are a mix of dark and light greens, which balance against the bright yellows and pink tones.

One of my goals as I prepared each piece was to get my edges as smooth and even as possible.  It was easier to accomplish this on some shapes than others.  The basic leaves were straightforward; the blossoms and some of the more complex leaf shapes were part of my learning curve.

I’m really on the homestretch now.  All of my cutting and prep is complete and the machine applique is finished on all of the centre blocks and two of the borders.  I’ve also finished cutting all of the strips for the narrow pieced border that frame the flower blocks.   Lined up like this they really reveal how colourful this quilt will be.

Here’s what I still have to do:

1. Press, trim and assemble the nine inner blocks.
2. Strip piece the narrow inner border.  Cut and assemble it.  Sew it to the inner blocks.
3. Machine applique the two remaining borders.
4. Trim and attach the borders to the quilt.

That’s it!  I’m so close I can taste it!