Medallion Quilt: 2 Steps Forward, 1 Step Back

I've been so busy ordering supplies and fabrics for the California Stitch-In and the Holly Berries Chapter Workshop (August in NJ) that I've barely had time to work on the Medallion Quilt I'm designing. And by designing I mean two steps forward and one step back but more about that later.

I sewed five-inch wide ivory Kona cotton borders to match the Medallion linen. I think a detailed quilting design, maybe in a red thread to match the Medallion, would be unusual and interesting on them. Next was a two-piece 3" (finished) square border sewn to the white borders using several fabrics. Here are the color choices in a mess of squares at my machine ready for assembly:

I decided on this sequence for them:

One of the steps back were the Kona cotton borders. I failed to correctly measure the top/bottom and sides of the quilt and then cut each white border to size. Well, I ended up with a wavy border that wouldn't lie flat. So I spent over an hour Sunday afternoon removing each border and THEN cutting to the correct size. Lesson learned and another opportunity to excel. After sewing them back on I sewed up each new pieced block border: 20 blocks on each side and 22 blocks for top and bottom. 

But there was one problem. The quilt, hence Medallion, is not a perfect square. It's one inch different between top/bottom and sides (sides are shorter). Oops...another opportunity to excel. I decided the best approach was to stitch each seam (except for each end square that has to match the top/bottom

square) again 1/32" in from each first seam for the sides. It would make the 20 squares fit perfectly and each "smaller" square would not be noticeable in the big picture. Here's a corner photo of the result.

I like the result so far.

The quilt is hanging over a stair rail for me to look at every time I pass by. Gives me something to think about for the next step. I'm getting close to finishing and am excited just thinking about sending this out to a long arm quilter (no, I'm not hand quilting this baby) and seeing it completed. Just have to decide how large I want this to be. Do you have any suggestions for the next row or two? If so, please send me your ideas. I would love to see what you think would work!