Hand quilting

I really am not sure where this is going to go. I normally have a plan, to some degree, for what I write here. Today, nothing. Stream of consciousness stuff, I guess. Not that there's anything wrong with writing off the top of my head, it's just kind of "alien" to me.

The next project on my UFO list is a handquilted Christmas wallhanging. It's nothing symbolic of the season except that it is green and gold and red. Traditional Amish Square in a Square design - the pattern will be in the quilting. I've started - there's a 6 pointed star in the center and it looks fine. The outside of the star, within the confines of the first square, needs something to make the star more "there." I'm thinking that I'll do some radiating lines out from the inside corners of the stars, but the idea's not grabbing me. Maybe just lines? I dunno.

The next border out will be a series of interconnecting diamonds, then clamshells, then I don't know. The quilt is done in borders à la Round Robins, only this robin never flew anywhere. Songs were suggested by our host (enabler?) Anna, to correspond to each round (or row). Instead of piecing each row to fit the theme, I pieced the whole thing and will quilt each round according to it. Everyone else followed the more "normal" road, but I - I took the one less travelled by. Let's see if it makes ANY difference. :o)

The songs are Stardust, Lucy In the Sky with Diamonds, Rainbow Connection, Annie's Song, and The River. They're all great songs, lots of imagery there, but I have this annoying little need to do things *right* and I'm finding that I'm not sure what *right* is. I guess it's not permanent, if I hate it I can unsew it and figure out what should be there in its place.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

~Robert Frost (1874–1963)