Westering Women, a Flimsy at Last!

All those blocks from Barbara Brackman's Westering Women BOM from 2016 have been simmering long enough!  A couple weeks ago I pulled them out of the miscellaneous blocks tote and began the search for sashing and border fabrics.  My blocks are an eclectic mix of fabrics with no central theme, my imaginary westward pioneer having collected bits and pieces of leftover fabrics from members of her family and good friends to remind her of her eastern childhood home when she arrived in Oregon.

Though my original plan was to sash the blocks with a dark blue and cream, the totes revealed no appropriate fabrics, so my thoughts turned to brown.  That plus the fact that there were over 4 yards of a gorgeous repro print just sitting there begging to become the outer border.  How could I possibly say no to Edith? 

 (Windham Fabrics "Edith", c. 1840-1870 by Mary Koval)

My first attempt at sashings turned out to be a disaster, resulting in a really muddy appearing calico overload - sashings and cornerstones that are now being saved for something far in the future. Maybe.  Lesson learned?  I wish!  Choosing color and fabric pattern has never been a strong suit.

Moving on, the solids came out in hopes there was still enough of the deep brown  that had seemed endless a few years ago. There was.  And so we ended up with this

and then this

I know my beloved border fabric seems washed out and stretching out into nothingness especially right next to that gray carpet. I'm hoping to rein it back in and add some life to the whole with a dark binding, possibly even a flanged binding repeating the burnt orange used in the stop border.  I suspect flanged bindings are not authentic to the period, but then there are quite a few other things that aren't authentic about the quilt.  Those of you who also participated in the WW BOM will notice that rogue block in the lower left.  Yep, I rebelled at the block with umpteen Y-seams and opted instead for a snowball block, done in creams, browns and black representing the first snowfall along the muddy trail over the mountains.  The cold, slippery mud must have been horrific for those weary travelers after so many months trekking hundreds of miles across the dusty plains.

At the moment I'm planning to load this top onto my newly acquired $5 hand quilting frame, though probably not until after the Christmas holidays when company departs, since the frame is most likely going to end up in the dining room for actual quilting.  I'm so looking forward to learning to quilt on the frame, and will likely try an easy overall design like Baptist Fans.  Frame quilting for me will always have to be simple linear designs like continuous cable or grid since I've never been able to quilt in all directions.  But won't it be fun to see a quilt loaded onto this beauty?