Now that all the blocks are finished, it’s time to put them together.

While I still haven’t decided exactly what the final look will be, I do have a few ideas in mind.

Since the blocks are so “busy”, I wanted to put a wide border around each with a neutral fabric.  White around the darker blocks, navy blue around the lighter ones.  Maybe a third color.  aqua? teal? mint? Definitely not red.

Since this will be a queen-size quilt which is the largest quilt I’ve made so far, I’m using the quilt-as-you-go method (QAYG).

That’s how I finished this full-sized Calendar Quilt last year and it was really easy-peasy.

My Calendar Quilt — Quilt as You Go

I stopped by the local quilt shop to pick out some fabric for the dark borders and discovered that the shop was having a “closing” sale.  So disappointed!  While I do order a lot of fabric online, I also buy from this place when I can–especially when I want to make sure the colors match.  They have another store in Ocala but for me that’s over an hour drive in bad traffic. Better off going to Tampa!

I bought all of this piece that they had — 2 1/4 yards.  The fabric has been “retired” and I couldn’t find it ANYWHERE online in case I needed more so I was very careful when I was cutting it!

I started out by adding a border on two sides of the block.

Each block will be 8 1/2″ unfinished which should mean I need to add 2 1/2″ strips for the two sides.  But I know that some of these blocks aren’t actually 6 1/2″.  So I cut it into strips of 2 3/4″.

Here’s the first block with a 6 1/2″ x 2 3/4″ piece on the right side.

Then I put an 8 1/2″ x 2 3/4″ strip on the bottom.

I bought an 8 1/2″ square ruler just for this project.  I lined it up with the upper left hand corner, then trimmed.

I’m trying to pick four styles of blocks to sew together. The one in the upper left is applique and patchwork, next to it is paper-pieced. The second row are both patchwork but look very different.

Sew the four blocks together.  I typically make sure that the seams match but since all of these blocks could vary a bit in size, I thought that it was more important that the ends matched up.

Then I added a 17″ strip on the left side.

And a 19″ strip on top.

So this is the piece that I’ll be quilting with QAYG and I’ll wait to trim it after I’ve quilted it.

This is what I have finished so far.

And this is what still needs borders!

Okay, that looks like a LOT.  But I’m actually pleased with how much I did complete since I was out of town for four days and am volunteering at the Learning Center two hours a day for three days a week!

Hopefully I’ll have more done next week!