Quilting is Complete

I love how the orange peel quilting turned out!  This is my first attempt at using a ruler with my quilting machine.  It really wasn't that difficult once I got the hang of it. 

The pebble quilting took forever but I think the results are pretty cool. I would definitely do it again.  I lowered my take up rail until it sat on the machine bed. This helps to stabilize the quilt for more detailed work.  I had previously thought I would need to buy the micro handles for my machine in order to do such detail but turns out I did fine without. They micro handles are expensive!

The continuous curves on the orange border have some errors but I learned a lesson there too.  On one side I tried quilting a bit at a time as i rolled the quilt.  That did not work out so well. For the other side I turned the quilt after finishing all the rest and was able to quilt across instead of front to back.  It made a huge difference in the quality.

I have attached the binding which is the same black material as the skinny borders and now only need to hand sew.

Moons and Star

The quilt top is complete measuring approximately 60" x 70".  I decided to add the circles and I am pleased with the results (although no one in my family is crazy about the idea).

The backing was a breeze since I bought plenty of the gray flannel...4 yds. This is the first time I have not had some patchwork on the back of the quilt.

I am using 80/20 batting for the first time too and I am not liking it as much as the all cotton. You never know whether you will like something until you try it!  A good example of that is Aurifil thread...also a first on this quilt.  I love it! I am using the 50 wt. in my quilting machine. I am do surprised how much father the bobbins go!   That reason alone is enough to sell me.

Hopefully will have the quilting done by the weekend.

A little bit of progress

Half of the star quilt is now together.  I have been thinking of making some borders with circles.  I would prefer to not have any borders at all but the pieced star will finish at only 48" square which is too small for just about anything.

I bought some very pretty grey flannel for the back.

Should have it ready for borders by the end of this week.

We also canned 39 points of salsa with the last of the tomatoes...yummmmm!

Bee Blocks

I am a little later with my September blocks for the Sunday Morning Quilts bee. Just mailed the blocks this morning!

Over the weekend i was hoping to finish Aunt Marcia's lap quilt but instead canned a bushel of tomatoes and a bushel of apples (applesauce).The produce won't wait!  I did manage to finish the quilting so only the binding is left.  Photos to follow once the project is complete.