One Half of One Border, Very Pretty

It was with a sigh of relief that I moved on from the piecing part of the Bulls Eye quilt to the applique part. Although I don't have a picture of the first, pieced, border it is the same as the pieced border I have seen on so many of these antique quilts. I am not sure what the name is but it is a square set on point within two triangles offset to make a strip. Many of the antique versions use red and yellow (yellow squares within a red background) and since those colors are featured in my pieced rings, that's what I used as well.

In the outside border I broke from tradition to make it straight applique. Most of the pictures I have seen combine various sizes and designs of Mariner's Compass blocks with isolated small floral motifs or simply broad bands of fancy quilting designs. I thought I would honor Indiana further with the state bird and state flower because I much prefer applique to piecing and I didn't think a plain quilted border had the strength to blend with the strongly colored center.

This is about half of one border but you get the idea. Almost all of the colors and almost all of the fabrics are somewhere in the pieced ring. The last flower will wait until the borders are attached and the miters are made and there will be some black embroidery on the birds for the eyes and the feathers near the beak. It is very pleasing to me with its happy colors and pretty design.