Getting back on the wagon

Well, it appears I've missed the mark on one of my goals, already. It's been more than a week since my last post. Sorry! I've been working on a few things, but not making much progress that is ready to share on any.

First, I finished up a block for a friend from the flickrverse. She asked me to create a house that is approximately 4" square for a group project . I'm a big admirer of modern architecture, so I went straight to the web to find an inspiration pic. I knew this was going to call for precision and small pieces, so designed my first ever paper piecing foundation. It didn't turn out quite like I had planned, but I love it and hope Melinda does, too!

I've also gotten all my B(squared) blocks trimmed up and ready to be joined with a tiny bit of lattice. It's going to be fabulous! I'm deciding whether to use it as my first stippled quilt (trying to be brave and jump in with Leah Day's instruction), do some straight line quilting, or create some fun motif.

I'm also very excited to be receiving my blocks from The 99 virtual quilting bee. There are only two packages outstanding. I'm cleaning up the threads on the back, making sure they're trimmed, and in some cases, peeling off the paper foundations to prepare. I just need to settle on a layout... It's going to be so pretty!!!

Now, for the main project that has been taking my time: Around the World in a Day. You may remember I admitted before that it was a long-time UFO languishing in my hand quilting pile.

Rule # 468: If you've laid out a quilt and there is a cat anywhere in the house,
said cat will immediately come running and sit on it.

Well, it's the project that has been taking most of my time, lately. I have the callouses growing on my middle finger and thumb to prove it. It's nearing completion (almost everything but the borders) and I'm thinking...I don't generally like borders. I don't want to quilt these borders. Should I just slice them off and bind it? (I did an envelope enclosure on the quilt forever ago, so it's not just a simple matter of unsewing them.) It's not going on my bed, but up in my living room where the colors will fit in better.

If I keep the borders, I'll have to decide how to quilt them. No clue what approach I would take. Could I just do them on my machine instead of hand quilting? Is it cheating to mix quilting types because I'm admittedly lazy? Could I please just be done with this quilt????

I'd love to hear your thoughts.