Nine-Patches, Bramble Blooms, Weather

I declared my interest in participating in Taryn's Tiny Four Patch sew-along but I haven't signed in to Facebook to see what's going on.  She's also hosting this on Instagram. 

I already had some 1½" squares in autumn colors that I'd been sewing into four-patches.  They are really scrappy, as you can see.  (Maybe I'll start making some less scrappy ones....)  I'd been trying to decide what to do with them and when I saw this sew-along it seemed like just the thing for these squares.  The blocks in the original quilt finish at 1½"--teeny tiny--compared to my 3" blocks--small.   But Taryn's open to participants sewing any small size.

The setting of the original quilt has the blocks on point with white between.  How would these blocks look with a gold print between, or some other autumn color, do you think?  Or cream, always a favorite.  I'll need to make over two hundred nine-patches so there's no hurry for a decision.  I'm aiming for 10/week which equals 40/month, so in about 5 months I should have enough for a bed-size quilt.  We'll see how it goes.  (I just calculated that 200 9-patches will require 1800 squares!  I might not have enough scraps!)

I'm still dithering about Bramble Blooms decisions.  I cut and sewed the teal border and that's it so far.  (No excuses here but my daughter and her kitties were here and my husband has been using the kitchen table where I cut large pieces.  It's not that I've been putting it off.)

I'm stumped on the borders without the arcs.  I only ever thought they would go on the right side and bottom.  But what to do about the other side and the top?  I thought about stripes, similar to but not like above.  Like a fence, maybe?  And on the other side are brambles?  I really can't think that those arcs/arches all the way around would be a good idea.  Another thought just occurred to me:  move the upper "pickets" on on the left to the bottom beside the bramble arc and leave maybe three pickets up the left side.  But that still leaves me with an empty upper border.   Leaves?  Birds?  What?

And then there's the question of that brown border.   Will I be able to recover from so much darkness in the next border?  Maybe I should go with a light border.  Oh, how I don't know what I'm doing.

Of course, I still need to decide what color and fabric the arcs and anything else I add will be.  But those decisions will depend on the border fabric....

Most of the quilts I make are made one step at a time, not knowing the end at the beginning, and I decide the next part of the quilt as I go along, but most of my quilts are made of blocks.  And I can always take as much time as I want to make decisions. 

But wait, I really am having fun.  A challenge can be fun, right?  I'm enjoying the challenges, just not the pressure of a time constraint.

On a different topic.  Do you cut away the fabric behind an applique?  I know one or two people who do and another one or two who don't. 

What about you?  I always have for several reasons.  First, because it's easier to hand quilt one less layer of fabric and, second, because I see that great expanse of usable fabric and think how it's going to waste.  What's your opinion and experience?  Leave it or cut it away?

The weather hasn't helped my energy—physical, mental, or creative—this week and last.  We haven't seen the sun since Monday, the 22nd.  No matter the time of day, from dawn to dusk, it has been grey or greyer and sometimes foggy.  It is beautiful.  It also makes me feel like sleeping for a few hours in the afternoon.  The weather forecast tells me tomorrow will be only partly cloudy.  I'm looking forward to seeing the sun!

I love winter when it snows.  There's still a chance for it this year.

I hope you're happy, healthy, safe, and enjoying whatever you're doing.

--Nancy.