Gaining on 2014

The weeks leading up to Christmas found me with a little extra time on my hands. With no company expected, nor travel in our plans, and with fewer regular activities to fill my time, I've made good progress on several UFOs. 

First, I free motion quilted Flower Ball. This is a Geta Grama design that's English paper-pieced with papers that replicate the curvature of a ball.

I started this quilt in January, and thought it would take me years to hand stitch. Less than 11 months, in between many other projects including two show quilts, isn't bad.

Flower Ball, 40-1/2" X 40-1/2"

The last time Flower Ball was seen on this blog was in September, as a quilt top. It could have been quilted and finished sooner.

Batting is Orient by Quilter's Dream. I'd never used this type before, and while I like it, a denser batting would have been more appropriate for this wall hanging. Orient would be great for a summer-weight quilt, a stroller throw, or light baby quilt.

Before I began quilting, I used my lucite board and dry erase markers to play around with designs.  

For quilting, mostly I used YLI polyester thread - I love the sheen - to quilt flow-y like feathers in the flower petals. Flower centers are spiral-quilted and surrounded by pebbles.

In the white paths between each flower are more pebbles with the occasional small spiral tossed in. 

The background quilting is an all over orange peel pattern, and is less dense than the quilting in the Flower Ball.

I always like to admire the resulting quilting texture which is usually more apparent from the back.

Flower Ball now hangs above the guest room bed, and I love it there, especially with the aqua ceiling.

With the Flower Ball finish, I moved on to honor a request from four year-old grandson, Austin. I pulled out Star Wars glow-in-the-dark fabrics I had for several months, and with a few other pieces from my stash, put together this top. Batting is Cream Rose that I've had around for a long time. The pattern is a freebie, called "School Pride," from Riley Blake Fabrics. I modified it to not only add the wide strip with Austin's name, but to make the quilt larger than the 46" X 53" pattern. This came out 60" X 71".

Because I can reconfigure my sewing room with sawhorses and hollow core door table tops, I did so for a two-day pin-basting marathon, beginning with the Star Wars top. 

Then, I re-pinbasted this Kaffe quilt (so-called because it's Kaffe Fasset fabrics). The reason I needed to re-baste is explained here. There's a completely different backing on this second basting go-'round.

And then, after pin-basting a third quilt top, "Urban Abacus," (50" X 67") my pin tin was completely empty!

I have my sites on two quilt finishes before the end of the year, so I'm totally in the FMQ groove. Back soon for an update. Linda