Surprise finish

Surprise--it's August! How did THAT happen?

Here's another surprise: I finished the blue fields and furrows quilt:

A clothesline--my grandmother would be so proud!

Did you ever think you would finish a quilt one way, only to finish it in a completely different way? That's what happened with this one. When we last left this project, I was trying to decide between a border of squares or rectangles. Turns out that neither of them looked very good, so I had to come up with something else. That's how I got the narrow white and blue borders. Kind of goes with the "furrows" idea, you know? I thought I was home free with this one, but then I started putting the border fabric--that is a part of this fabric line and that I have had for AGES--with the quilt center. It looked awful. Really. Take a look:

Aaack! Where did those giant hot pink flowers come from? Yikes. Ok, it's not so bad, but it completely clashes with the relaxed vibe of this quilt. There was no way I could use that fabric on this quilt. Time for Plan C (actually we may be at Plan E or F by now, but. . .) My only real option was the wide white border. I have more of the solid-looking blue for the binding, so that will make a nice frame. I'm disappointed about the border, but I do like the fields and furrows center. I think this is one that I'll like a lot more after it's finished.

All in all, I'm fairly happy with how this turned out, especially considering its origins. (For that story, see HERE.) I didn't set out to make a two fabric quilt, but I like how it used up all of those HSTs--and then some, because you may have noticed that what was a 5 by 6 quilt is now a 6 by 7 quilt.  (With 378 HSTs!) I just couldn't leave a triangle behind, so I made a few more so that they all got used up.

I'm counting this as a major scrap finish. I'm just sick about that border fabric, though. I can't stand to waste any fabric!I would just give it away, but I feel like at some point I can strip it together with another color to make a backing or something. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

Speaking of using every inch of fabric. . .does anyone want these?

These are the cutoff pieces from the HSTs. There are a couple hundred, and I sewed one set together to get an idea of the size:

I can't guarantee that they're all the same size, but probably they could reliably be expected to be 1 1/2 inches, to finish at one inch. They are from first-quality Moda fabric, which means I can't bring myself to throw them out. I could probably come up with something to do with them, but I have plenty of projects. Maybe someone makes miniatures? Any way, if you would like them, I would be happy to mail them to you. Leave me a comment and let me know what you'll do with them. If more than one person wants them, I'll pick a random number. Let's say Monday at noon central time? That sounds good to me.

Well, that's my surprise finish! Everyone have a great weekend. I can't believe it's August! Here's to sipping a cool drink during the dog days.

Linking with Sarah and Amanda Jean, and maybe also Angela because this was all scraps. I'll have to check the posting rules on that. I see that August's color for RSC14 is bright green.  From what everyone was saying, I was all set for orange! Here's my pathetic stash of bright green scraps:

I may have to go shopping, and isn't that a tragedy?

Happy sewing!