Originally Posted by GramMER

A friend bought material for me to make a quilt for her little red-haired boy. I had already cut out the main picture blocks to set together with other cloth that was not so garish (possibly light blue batik to represent sky and clouds).

The blocks are bordered by yellow print which originally was printed like sashing between them. I just cut the sashing in half to cut out each block. You can easily see that in the attached picture. The problem is that the blocks are not square! Inside the yellow "sashing" border, the picture is exactly 7" wide, but not quite 7" high. That means I have to add about a 1/4" of yellow or something to the bottom to make them square. I have plain yellow about the same intensity that could be used for that.

Now, do I want to have a 7" finished block or do I want to make the block 9" (using a one inch yellow border all around--being slightly bigger on the bottom)? It might be easier to hide the extra yellow that is needed to make it square if I do it that way. Is a yellow border too garish to pair up with the light blue alternate blocks? Should I put a pieced block between--something like pinwheels or a block within a block. Pinwheels could serve as windmills maybe?

There are enough of these blocks to make a top for a twin bed if I use the other prints for a border. My friend also bought enough of one type of print to make a back, so what is your suggestion? I should have taken a photo of the other prints, but they are all just tractors of varying sizes--some a little less yellow and green than these, but all have an up and down directional print--posing quite a challenge to include them.

It is really hard to get inspired about a quilt that is more or less pre-fabricated and that has such loud colors, but my DH says it is definitely a boy's quilt.