Strolling the Block Quilt......Part 1

This it the latest UFO im working on.......its the MSN Strolling the Block Quilt that i started, with a very good friend (hi jules xxx) at least 2 years ago..........Here r blocks Jan- June:

Here r blocks July-Dec:

This quilt has special memories for me..........it represents great days of sewing with a friend (on the same project).........fantastic emails bragging about our finished blocks ......and sifting through each others stash only to pick fabric from our own stash lol..........each block had a story!! It was an amazing exercise, when we laid out our blocks and compared them, we had two unique interpretations of the one quilt.
It was also what i refer to as my "growth quilt"....for the first time i didnt stress about matching colours or fabrics, i just threw together combinations that completed a picture and thats the way i have chosen fabric ever since.........i lost that fear of experimenting.
This afternoon, after work i checked all my blocks were square (happy to report they were pretty accurate lol) and then i started cutting the borders to join it all together. Here's what im using:

I chose to go with the plain black borders cause i feel it will really showcase each block and im putting the little 4 patch squares at each corner. Ill finish cutting tomm (after work) and then hopefully be ready to piece it all together next week.
When u put something away for such a long time, u forget how much work u put in........i must have used close to 3m of Vilosofix and at least 10 skeins of black cotton for the applique. Not sure exactly where im going to put this treasure when its completed but it will be great to give it a home.
Happy quilting!!
Rose.