Crossing the border(s)

I took a break from working on my mandala quilt borders and got out Christmas stockings.  Quilter's Newsletter is looking for photos of handmade stockings and will have a drawing on Friday (randomly) for some sort of prize, so I entered and thought I'd share them with you. 

These are some of my handmade wool felt stockings.  The designs are mine and I also hand dyed most of  the wools for the appliques. They are hand stitched with wool floss using a buttonhole stitch.  Very enjoyable to do.

Oh, those borders:  I've completed one border and am well into the second.  The weekend winter storm had me grounded and put me to work.  There will be 300+ "logs" of varying widths between 1 and 2 inches, pieced together to make the borders.  It does look like wood - I saw a split tree stump in the woods snowshoeing yesterday - oooh, wish I had my camera because I won't find it again. 

If you've ever sewn strips together like this, you know the finished strip will be way way off in terms of a nice straight piece.  So.... I had an idea to piece them to graph paper using the lines and the paper to keep things straight.  It works.  I planned on 8 1/2" wide borders - and well, paper is 8 1/2 x 11" - but wait!  If you really measure a sheet of paper, it's only 8 3/8" not 8 1/2".  Doesn't matter.  This is a very putzy process and not my favorite (that would be applique)!  I plan to add some applique to surround the mandala blocks too.  And determined to have the top finished by early January.