Red and Brown medallion quilt - an update

I haven't abandoned my blog posts about my China trip, but I wanted to update you on the progress of my red and brown medallion quilt.  As you can see from my last post about it, I changed the cornerstones on the outer ninepatch border above.  I liked the print I used but the colourway was too light, so I was pleased to find exacly the same pattern in a slightly darker tan, rather than the original cream, colourway.

I have been dragging my heels on this one because of the size of the quilt.  As you can see in the photo above, it is already pretty big, and there are three more borders to add - a red zigzag, a second Flying Geese border and a final Nine Patch on point border.  I resized all the blocks inside the dark border (shown in the original below - click here to go to the V & A's website) to make good use of modern precuts - jelly rolls and charm squares.  I have made the outer Flying Geese and Nine Patch borders with the same size pieces as the centre, again to make best use of precuts.  The original is about 100in square.  With the red zigzag border, mine is going to end up 110in or thereabouts.

I've cut out the red zigzag border and assembled one of them, plus made my outer Flying Geese borders and all the outer Nine Patch border blocks (I haven't assembled the outer Ninepatch border yet).  If I add the red zigzag border, the quilt will come out a whopping 110in square. At this size, the Nine Patches in the outer border are all complete (no half Nine Patches like in the original). I can just about fit this onto my quilt frame for tacking. If I leave it off and shorten the outer Flying Geese and Nine Patch borders, it will finish at around 100in square, and have half Nine Patches at the end of each outer strip.

I am thinking I should leave off the red zigzags for various reasons.  It would make the quilt smaller and a bit more manageable.  If the quilt finishes at 110in, I don't even have a bed big enough I could use it on (although that is not really a consideration).  But now it is destined to be a magazine project, and the instructions will allow you to stop adding borders when the quilt is big enough.  So should I make it the full 110in square, i.e. super king size? How do you think it will look without the red zigzag border?  I have backing and wadding big enough for 110in and I can display a quilt this big at most quilt shows I attend (my quilt stand is 3m or 118 wide).

I have been pondering this for ages!  Now I need to finish this quickly, I have to decide.  Opinions please!

My Chinese blog posts will resume tomorrow.