Decisions, decisions

I spent most of the weekend working on the medallion. The checkerboard and mountains border was finished easily by lunchtime on Saturday. Then I spent the rest of Saturday and part of today trying to decide on cornerstones.

I didn't like the look of a large plain square at all.

I thought I'd like a diagonally placed four patch, but didn't like the way that looked either.

I tried a square in a square block next but that wasn't right.

Next came a double four patch. That was better - I liked the way it "finished" the checkerboard border. But I didn't like how it led my eye off into the corner.

What if I replaced the one four patch with a triangle square? Nope - don't like that.

How about one four patch and three plain squares? I think this is the best so far. It might work.

My final try was to cut more triangles and finish the outside mountains so they looked like the rest of the mountains. I had considered this idea a couple times earlier but discarded the thought without trying it. I didn't think I'd like that much light fabric in each corner. Wouldn't you know it - I like this one the best. Once I had it in place I realized it perfectly echoed the first border around the center.

Finally! I made the decision by mid afternoon today. Now on to border number six.

I decided on variable stars for the sixth border. I made five of them and set them into place on the design wall to see how I like them.

Hmmm . . . I like the stars . . . but now are there too many light fabrics next to each other where border five and border six meet? Maybe. So I tried adding a "Plain Jane" border like the one I added after round two. Hmmm . . . I'm not sure if this is an improvement. Maybe this fabric is too dark for this narrow border. Maybe I should try a medium tone for the Plain Jane? I haven't had time to cut that one yet to try out, so I don't know how that would look. I'll have to try that tomorrow. If I go for the Plain Jane I have five stars I can't use as the stars will need to be 8 1/2" finished instead of 8" finished.

Decisions, decisions . . . sometimes it's so hard. So I'm going to sleep on it and look at it again in the morning. I invite your ideas also if you would like to join in my decision making.

In the meantime I made another Dear Jane block - C-3 - Rayelle's Fence - so I could stay caught up with the group. This one was really easy. I just sewed two small strata, cut them into strips and sewed the strips together.