Hearts in Blue

My "Hearts in Blue" top.

I first started this quilt in 2002.

We were leaving on our first trip to Cape York and I wanted some handwork to take with me. Just because I already had enough handwork to sink the Titanic didn't mean a thing. I would definitely need more. So I traced all the hearts and packed them away in the caravan.

When we got back home and unpacked I found them again. Over the next four years I slowly (and I mean slowly) worked on the embroidery finally finishing last year.

Then I had the decision on how I was going to join them together. I didn't want it to be like the pattern. Just eicky I guess. I never want to play by the rules. So I decided to put them together in this zigzag fashion and not too use the same material anywhere in the zigging or zagging, but there was just one thing wrong, the quilt was too narrow and waaay too long but I thought it would be fine on a single bed as a topper. So I started hunting around for the borders. I found some really lovely blues and one in particular that I thought would go really well. So I cut out the strips and sewed them on and then it sat, because I wasn't happy with the final project.

The other day I bit the bullet and unpicked the borders and four rows of the hearts, finally found the right blue for a border, cut it 1½" wide and sewed it on. At last something I could live with, but what to do with the extra hearts that I spent all that time embroidering. Light bulb moment and now I have a top that is almost finished - again, I'm very happy with the result so far. I've now drawn in pencil vines with curly cues, leaves and hearts in the cream border. I now have to embroider them in the blue.

One quandry I have left to muddle out. Will I put another 1½" navy border on the outside or shall I just bind it with navy?