Indecision

Indecision always slows me down.  I think the reason so many of my quilts-in-progress get laid aside is because of indecision.  (Do you call quilts in this situation unfinished, having a time out, quilts in progress, laid aside, UFOs?  What's your name for them?)  These quilts are usually ones that I dream up myself or that I have to make some decisions to finish them and I get stuck.  This way or that?  This fabric or that?  Sashing this width or that?  And all the other decisions that go into a quilt.  When I have enough of these quilts-in-progress they become a cycle of picking up where I left off, again and again and again.

The quilt I'm getting ready to unstitch is Baskets of Plenty but I need to make some decisions before I pull out my seam ripper.

This is where I left it:  borders around each block, sashing, and cornerstones are all stitched.  The angel at the top is prepared but I don't think I stitched her down, so at least there's that. 

The problem is the brown sashing.  And maybe the burgundy borders, too. 
The brown color's wrong and the fabric itself is even more wrong.  I bought it on sale at JoAnn a few years ago.  It was such a great price that I was sure I could use it for something.  It's all cotton but it's both course and rough, almost scruffy.  I could leave it but I would never be satisfied.  Sadly, I don't know what fabric, or what color, to replace it with.  A darker brown, better quality fabric?  Grey borders instead of burgundy?  Or...?  I nearly always think of primitive quilts with dark colors.  Would this quilt work with medium tones?   If you have thoughts/ideas about borders and sashing for these blocks, I'd love to know! 
 
One of my problems is not being able to truly envision how a quilt will look before it's finished.  I guess I have an impaired imagination, or at least impaired mental vision.  It's rough when you have to sew something to be able to see it, then not like it and have to unstitch.  Anyone face that challenge?

But maybe my biggest problem with this quilt is that these blocks have become precious to me.  They were part of Cheri Payne's last sew-along on her Facebook page.  She provided the pieces of the patterns and we all chose how we wanted to use them.  It's always a bad thing when preciousness happens because objectivity flies out the window.  Who can be objective about someone or something they love?

I've also been scouting around for backing for Time Flies.  This is a quilt that won't get unstitched, thank goodness!

I'd like to find fabric that relates to time: clocks, hourglasses, watches, sundials, even dandelion clocks (you know, dandelion seed heads?).  I'm hoping for fabric with red/in the red range and perhaps grey, black, and/or tan.  I've been trying to think of other time-related images.  Ideas, anyone?  I saw Michael Miller's Vintage Treasures Children at Play fabric and considered play-time and the idea that children grow up so fast, as in time flies, but decided the front of this quilt wasn't quite playful enough for that fabric.  I'm sure some fabric will turn up.  I just hope it does before I finish the quilt that's in the hoop now!

I hope all is well in your part of the world.

--Nancy.