Custom Queen-Sized Jacob's Ladder in Moda Mimi - Progress #3

The blocks are completed and sewn together into the quilt top.  I moved one row of blocks from the bottom to the top of the quilt so the X design of the small squares was completed along all of the edges.  You can see in my previous post  that the X design was not completed and looked odd.  I didn't notice the mistake until I had the blocks on the design wall and left them there for awhile. 
Leaving the blocks on the wall for a day or two lets me look at the layout with a careful eye to find mistakes like this.  Also, seeing the fabrics at different times of day in varying degrees of light points out problems, such as too many dark fabrics clustered in one corner or all reds bunched together.  This is one of the benefits of using a design wall rather than laying the blocks out on the floor.  Plus, I can leave it there until I have time to work on it again.
I rarely make quilts with borders, and putting them on this quilt is a very nice change; there aren't as many blocks to make, in addition to using large pieces of beautiful fabrics rather than cutting everything into smaller pieces.  
My customer who ordered this quilt told me she used to do a lot of work with old quilts; restorations and repairs.  In doing research for one of those projects, she read a letter that one settler wrote about her quilt.  She wished she could purchase enough fabric to have a sashing instead of having to piece everything.  So to my customer (and to the settler woman), a quilt with a fantastic border makes a quilt extravagant!  
I had never thought of borders in that way and see them in a whole new light now!  I take for granted being able to buy fabric for a quilt without worrying that we will be able to pay our bill at the merchantile when the family goes to town after harvest to stock up for the winter.  To that settler, a quilt border was a luxury because most yard goods were used to make clothes, sheets, and diapers, and quilts could always be made from scraps.  Oh the time she would have saved if she had been able to add a border instead of piecing so many extra blocks - by hand of course!!
The plan is to add the borders tomorrow and be quilting her by the weekend!  
This quilt is a custom quilt order in my Etsy shop, BusyHandsQuilts.