Some Quilting Time

My Life is full of projects.  It's funny how I'll finish one project and look around wondering, "What should I start next?"  I should really stop saying that.  As soon as I start looking for trouble, boy does it find me!

I have been sewing non-stop for the last 2 months and yet very little of it has been done on my long-arm machine.  I have a stack of quilts waiting patiently for me to get quilting!  This week I took a deep breath and dove right in.

I was a little hesitant at first.  No worries!  Once the first edge was tacked down I was off and running.  Seriously.  I start off Quilting so fast!  Quilting to me is so flowing, I have to remind myself to slow down.  My machine has an alarm which lets me know when I am moving the machine faster that the stitch regulator can keep up.  Well, let me just say that think was constantly chiming.

Once I reined in my speed, I developed a nice rhythm and pumped out two quilts.  I am happy to report that the space ship quilt is FINISHED and bound.  It was deployed on it's mission at 1300 hours yesterday!  I hope the little guy is just as excited to receive  it as I was to send it.  

Funny how things start.  I had a plan for quilting this quilt.  I was going to just do a simple meandering star pattern over the entire surface.  I should have known.  This quilt has been such a lesson in creativity why would I think I could do just a simple all over design.  I started with the stars and then progressed on to a ton of other designs.

I used many patterns from the Free Motion Quilting Project and many old stand-by's.

What started out as a "simple" all over design turned into over 10 different quilting patterns in 6 different thread colors.  But let me just say, "This quilt totally rocks!"

The entire surface of the white rocket-ship is covered with vertical or horizontal lines, which are more or less straight.

 The alien windows are quilted in a stipple.

I tried several new patterns.  A square maze and a triangle maze on a few different spots.

This block was done using a pattern I typically reserve for water.  I think it makes this planet come alive.

Here is a Echo Flame which gives such a great illusion of Blasting OFF!

I tried 3 different patterns on the stars in this quilt. The Super Daisy from the FMQ Project,  The Echo Paisley and my version of the Echo Arch.

As you can probably tell I am just a little excited about this quilt!  I cannot wait to hear about the Birthday boy's reaction.  Happy Birthday Ian!