2 Minutes Quilting; 30 Minutes Ripping

I saw a really lovely border design I wanted to try - the one at the bottom of the picture:

(courtesy of Green Fairy Quilts)

(Check out her blog; it's awesome!)

Yeah...., Although I did trying drawing it on paper first, and really wasn't able to consistently emulate her beautiful consistency, I decided to give it a shot.  My quilting didn't look any worse than my drawing, but I discovered my brain really balked - a lot of "duh..., which way now."  Spastic!  I like free motion quilting, but wasn't enjoying trying to make this design.

As with anything, my first thought was to keep going; I'm bound to get better.  But I am working on an outer border.  There is going to be too much time spent finishing it to do a design I don't enjoy.

Next up, the nestled circles above it!  :D

The Dresden Wall-hanging - Need Suggestions.

In May of 2010, P. at The Way I Sew It, gave me the lovely Dresden center below.  She'd been on some kind of Dresden spree and had an extra.  Lucky me!  It took some time to figure out how to best showcase it, but I finally decided to mount it on the black fabric with the ribbon border.

Forgive Max.  He takes his QI duties very seriously.

Then life changed very drastically and I have only recently found a somewhat settled place.  (P. probably thought I'd forgotten about it or lost it since I've made so many moves.)  I began working on it again.  The center is quilted in a spiral and the plate itself is merely outlined so it will pop.  I began quilting the black fabric outside of the Dresden, and decided I didn't like it. No worries, I'd just rip out the quilting in that one corner (the one without pins) and start again.

Except....!  I put a hole in it with the seam ripper.  I am just so not happy about that.

Now, I am left with two choices:  take it apart and try to put it back together with an un-holed piece of black, or applique something on top of the hole.  I am loathe to do either.  I have discovered that dismantling and reassembling rarely results in a satisfactory outcome.  However, I am afraid any applique I could add would take away from the Dresden I was trying so hard to perfectly showcase.

Anyway, quilters, I am open to suggestions.

Say it with me.....

Say it with me, Quilters: The seam ripper is my friend; the seam ripper is my friend; the seam ripper is my friend....

The freakin' *&^%$ ripper is my friend!

Okay, I feel better now. Thanks.