Free Motion Fun

I've been quilting my mini for the Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt Swap and I'm loving it so far.

That partially quilted section is where the bobbin ran out this morning!

First I did stitch in the ditch around all the grey squares and the coloured triangles. Personally, I find stitch in the ditch to be boring work, though it does enhance the overall look of the quilt. I use my free motion foot rather than my walking foot and I'm finally getting better at it. There were fewer wobbles than there have been with past projects. Once that was done I could move on to the fun stuff!

The flower in the middle of each white section is adapted from a picture on the cover of Judi Madsen's book Quilting Wide Open Spaces. I ordered a copy of the book (though it hasn't arrived yet) and the cover photos are gorgeous. The flower on the book has six petals, but mine looked better when I drew them with eight.

I'm filling in around the flowers with pebbles and swirls and I'm thinking I'll leave the grey squares and coloured triangles unquilted so they pop against the more heavily quilted white.

There are two half-blocks on each edge of the quilt, so they're all getting half-flowers as well. I sure hope my swap partner likes lots of quilting!

Last night I had finished for the night, and had the quilt laying on the kitchen table so I could just look at it, when Paul came into the room. He asked if I wanted to make something else for my partner so we can just keep this one! Hmmm, no time for that, but now we're trying to decide what colours we want to use when I make one for us. Looks like there will be a fabric order in my near future. Oh darn!

Are you interested in having me make you a special present? Check out my Craft It Forward post for details.

Linking to Anything Goes Mondays. Also to WIP Wednesday and the new-to-me KISMIT at Modern Traditional Quilts.