Steampunk QAYG Quilt Progress

I've been doing a fair bit of reading about how to Quilt As You Go as I am getting closer to the point where I will be assembling my Steampunk quilt blocks. Here is a quick peek at where I'm up to - a long time in the making considering I started this quilt back in August 2010.

8 of the 12 planned Steampunk blocks

With the Quilt As You Go method of quilting I'll be taking each of these blocks and quilting them before they are sewn together. They will be assembled with black sashing between each block into a grid of 3x4. I think this is the easy part... what has had me procrastinating and searching the internet is how to add a border, rather than finish the set of blocks off with just a binding.

I've been asking on blogs and forums with limited success. I believe the adding of borders to a QAYG quilt is something that is usually taught in a class and hard to explain without being able to show step by step photos, but I've never been one to take classes and I've never let a little gap in knowledge stop me from trying anything - don't worry, I'll document the method I end up using so you can have a go too!

What I think I'll end up doing at this stage is add the border the same as I will the blocks which will mean an extra 8 pieces - 4 sides and 4 corners - in order to make the sashing pieces look symmetrical. The sashing should look the same on the front and back, but the back will be completely black unless I change my mind between now and quilting.

The octopus is the most recent addition to the Steampunk set and was developed from conception to execution in a really short time - only about 2 weeks! I had the idea for him not long ago, while other designs are still sitting in my notebook. I really love some of the more abstract Steampunk icons creeping into this quilt.