All Quilted

I am TIRED!  It is nearly ten p.m. and I just finished quilting the other half of the quilt. This is the Beginner's Quilt Along quilt.  What I am going to show you is the back of it.  I have already shown the front several times.

This is not a great picture (hey, I did I mention being tired?)  I just laid the two pieces on the bed and took a quick photo.  You can see that I used several leftover pieces from the top, including the two extra blocks.  I can't help myself, I love a pieced back. I generally work a bit too much on it. Still I want the back to be an extra "work of art" so that the owner can have a change of scenery.  Plus, the backs are always what I call free piecing.  There are no rules.  If I have fun making it, that is all that matters.  Of course often what we create in play is better (or at least more interesting)  than our "work."
Do you allow yourself to play?

Boxy Quilting

The second quilt I made in the Beginner's Quilt Along is now half quilted.  I attempted to do a free motion quilting pattern that my friend Marjorie (Marjorie's Quilting Bee) showed a couple of days ago.  As soon as I saw it, I thought, "Hey that looks like one of my doodles."  The pattern is a series of overlaid squares.  I doodle these on paper all the time. So my thought was that I could sure do it on a quilt too.
The thing is, on paper I pick up my pen and move it easily.  Not so with quilting.  Also, I can see where I am going and where I have been at a glance.  Again - not true on a quilt. You see the presser foot and the arm of a standard machine gets in the line of sight.
Still I did an entire half of this quilt with this pattern - or should I say "a loose interpretation of it"

You can see the pattern in this piece. 

Hmm...I got a little "lost" or should I say "creative" here.

Even with my "errors" this pattern worked out very nicely and will make a lovely quilt.
You can see Marjorie's version on her blog post dated October 8th.

As you can see it all but disappears on the white fabric with aqua dots.  I used a white Aurifil thread and it worked amazingly well.  I used it in the top AND the bobbin. What I really loved was that for this half of a large lap quilt, that is quilted fairly densely, I only needed two bobbins!  With the other thread I was using, it was common to use four for this.  Not having the bobbin run out so soon certainly helps to maintain the creative flow.  I do love some Aurifil thread goodness!

Time to vote on quilts- today only

Hi!  I have two quilts in the Beginner's Quilt Along.

Today is the last day to vote on the quilts entered.  Somehow I missed the start of it.
you can vote at this address http://quiltinggallery.com/2012/10/02/voting-time-beginners-quilt-along-quilts/
If you like my quilts, I would love it if you vote for me. If you like others better, then vote with your heart!
But please go and vote.

Finally -some progress!

This past week has been rather unproductive, but I changed all that today.  I managed to finish piecing backings for the two halves of my last Beginner's Quilt Along quilt.  I have them basted and rolled until I can quilt them.

Do I go overboard piecing my quilt backs???  Sometimes I wonder.....

After getting that task out of the way,  I worked on some scrappy goodness that will one day be a quilt. There are actually two pieces.  I am not sure if they will go in the same quilt or two different ones. 

This was going to be a back, but I couldn't do it. I like it too much as a top!

More top or use it as backing? The decisions we have to make!

Meanwhile, next to the sewing machine are more scraps waiting to become yet more scrappy quilting goodness.
Are you putting your scraps to good use?