D9P borders and basting

I auditioned about a dozen fabrics for the borders on my D9P and finally settled on this purple. Then I wanted to bring some of the white connecting corners out into the borders, but didn't want the white to overpower the border, so I sewed 2 diamonds on the top and bottom and 3 diamonds on the sides. 

Tada...a finished quilt top!

It sure looks different than what I had anticipated!

I just noticed that the white blocks with the connecting corners look like bowtie blocks set on a diagonal...I like that too!

In looking around at my garden it is apparent that I really do like pink and purple...my Rose of Sharon bushes bloomed at the same time as I was sewing this quilt top together...more purple and pink to enjoy! I love these bushes and really enjoy their blooming season.  I even saw a hummingbird in the blooms one day but couldn't get my camera out fast enough to snap a photo.

The next step for my pink and purple quilt is pin basting with my handy dandy Kwik Klip. I know lots of people don't like pin basting, but I still love it. I am afraid of inhaling the spray basting fumes since I don't have a large enough table outside to use, and I was very unhappy with the quilts on which I used a basting gun. So I'll stick with my favorite method for now. 

And I put the basting time to good use by practising my quilt whispering skills (you can read about my abilities here) LOL. I ask the quilt "what kind of quilting would you like" and I start to get some ideas of things I could do. Some ideas I refuse outright because they are too labour intensive but the other ideas I make note of and let them percolate while I finish the basting. Then I usually quilt a "stitch in the ditch" grid horizontally and vertically to stabilize the whole thing and then I go to town with the free motion.