I like that wider stem...and while I love the leaves and flowers....could you try making them a little
well ..chubby ? rounded out a bit? fuller? : That's is what's making it seem to delicate to me..IMHO....

I could iron out the 11 yards of 1/4" bias strips and put steam a seam on them, but it's a bit messy. Think I will just go out and find an alternative fabric instead as I don't have enough left to do a wider stem. I am thinking of doing 1/2" stems and adding some more oak leaves. That might be enough. Here's a photo with a little bit of 1/2" stem in place. The original size is hanging down from the red circle.
Does that look too wide? I have a bias tape maker for 1/2" which would be handy to use. Alternatively I will do raw edge strips with fusible on the back.

Could you take the stem that you have made and double it up to make a twisted rope effect? that would give the appearance of being chunkier (and you would probably come up short and need to make some more )

Hummmm??? Maybe there's another red and white quilt in your future ! 11 yards, huh?

Thanks Rosemary and Margo. Fortunately nothing is set in stone yet. Margo I agree with you about the stem - I have only made about 11 yards of the 1/4" stem made so that's okay. Thank you for doing the reverse image and putting it with the photo from Show and Tell, it's very helpful. Back to the drawing board.

I agree with Rosemary, but I would take it a little farther. I think this border looks a little too delicate for those chunky New York Beauty blocks and the applique you added in the center. I think that a wider stem and more chunky flowers and leaves might make a better balance.

Without going into the maths side of things (although on that front 3" extra sounds right, but if you cut 3.5" extra and you don't need the extra 1/2" you can always cut it off ) since you seem to have all the leaves etc already cut out, if you are doing the stem from bias strip, cut it a bit longer, wiggle it from end to end to correspond with the original design, but slightly stretch the curves (not the bias!) to fit your new length. Then place the leaves etc down but again slightly stretched out with a bit more space between them - or if you think the gaps a bit too big cut an extra one or two leaves and shuffle things up to fit them in.

I could do with a tip on up-sizing the border. Here's a photo of a bit of a mock-up of what I think I might do. I will need to add a red sashing strip before the border I think so that means that I will need my borders to be slightly bigger than the original size. If my sashing strips end up 1 1/2" does that mean that my borders need to be 3" longer? Or should it be 3 1/2" to include seam allowances? Rita, your mathematically challenged friend!

I';m sorry--I found it.

Margo, When do we get your tips for downsizing the border?

Looking forward to seeing photos in the BOM Show & Tell!