Sunday Summary Christmas Cushion Confusion

Hello!

(I know, I'm here again!  I can't quite believe it...)

This week has been a week of dithering and hand quilting yet more stars.  I've quilted just over two-thirds of the stars on the blue and white quilt, here are the latest two:

I started cutting the hexies for my first Christmas cushion, and discovered I was eight hexies short of a cushion (a phrase I'm hoping passes into common usage!):

so I set about trying to work out what to put in the gaps, which is where the dithering started.  First of all I removed the plain hexies:

which I liked, but something's going to have to go in the gap so I searched through my stash and found some options:

and the only thing that helped me decide was that I'd use the stripy fabric for the binding.  (Thanks, Clare!)

I thought that laying the hexies over the options might help (that was less fun than you might think!, but it didn't:

but it didn't stop me trying again:

Still no decision.  In the end, I've decided that no decision is my decision for the time being, and I've started piecing together the hexies I have, together with gaps for the to-be-announced hexies.  It's harder than you might think to piece gaps!

I think that upside down polar bear on the left is the bottom left corner of the panel.  At least, it was when I started!

On Friday, I did some more dithering when I had to choose between the two darker greys in this photo:

I went for the dark one, as I felt the tone went better with the pale grey background.  This is for a technique tutorial (not a pattern!) I'm writing for the Finish-Along (for January), so I remembered to take some photos as I was piecing.

A sneak peek, before borders:

Ta dah!

And a closer look at those stripes:

At which point the next dither started: how on earth do I quilt it?!  I have a couple of ideas, but would love some suggestions!  (I don't do FMQ, so please nothing that can't be done with a walking foot!)

I realised I haven't shared many photos of my garden this year, so here's a couple I took about an hour ago:

I'm amazed at the number of flowers I've still got!  That packet of wildflower seeds was well worth scattering in June!  As were growing some cosmos from seed, even though the birds ate loads of them.  As were the nasturtium seeds I picked up on a whim.


Eddie had a haircut, I don't think he was that impressed:

And it turns out that Archie doesn't have all the answers...

No, I don't know what you should use for your extra Christmas hexies, either.  It's a proper puzzle all right.

Thanks for popping in!