Warm Wishes

I have been woefully lazy on quilting/sewing projects. I cannot tell you what I have been doing..but NOT THAT! I worked on this quilt last week and am not 100% convinced of this border. Looking at the pictures...I see a mistake! HA! Better now that later for sure. Any ideas,suggestions, hints for this border. I actually like the top better with the borders. I was disappointed that the gold in the stripe block and the background of solid blocks made the solid kind of ...disappear. The border helps. What do you think I should bind in? I will have plenty of the black border, but am leaning towards red. You cannot see from the picture, but the black background has silhouettes of firefighters in their gear. It is a nice texture. Any and all suggestions cheerfully requested!

I'm also cutting out a tote bag. I found the pattern at the sewing class I help teach. If I had REALLY read the instructions BEFORE I fell in love with it, I would have saved my hands ALOT of cutting! Literally each piece gets a main fabric, contrast and a fusible interfacing...some also get timtex! I'm cutting as many pieces each day as I have time (read: sanity) for. I had also misplaced my good sewing shears. I KNOW they are in this house...I just didn't' want to stop to look for them. I picked up a cheap (but very good) pair of scissors at Big Lots (I just LOVE scissors..and added a pair to my sewing students pile of notions) just so I could continue on. This way the tote keeps going FORWARD..not getting added to the pile of "stuff to be cut out and started someday" pile.