Quilting patterns

It dawned on me about 2 weeks ago that I had quilted in several months! Granted I had been using my new Handstitched skills to 'quilt' but I had not used my long-arm machine.  The layer of dust covering the machine was my first clue.  The second clue was the layer of things, most of which did not belong to me, that had built up on my quilting table.  Why must every flat surface announce "Please drop everything on me!" Ultimately, I took down my color wheel quilt, loaded it on the machine and got to work.

You might remember this quilt from the Curves Class I took back in February.  (really, was it that long ago?)  sigh.  I had the quilt top finished, the backing cut and even a piece of batting ready to go.  Then the poor thing hung on my "to be Quilted" rack for months.

Such an extended period of time has elapsed that I can't even tell you what got in my way.  Life.  I guess.

Bound and determined to get this baby quilted and hung up on the wall I went to work.  I quilted the background in three colors of gray, ranging from light to dark on the corresponding light, medium and dark areas of the background.  I divided the background area up into wedges by simply extending the wedges from the color blocks.  Within each wedge area I quilted wavy lines, alternating between horizontal and vertical.

Within the center of the quilt I used the pebbles quilting design.  Then I got a little crazy.  I tried something new.  I used my long-arm machine to baste the color wheel.  (gasp!) I then took the quilt off of the machine and starting using my table top sewing machine to quilt the individual color wedges.  (totally out of Control!)

I have 4 wedges quilted with different straight line designs.  Now, what I cannot decide is should I repeat the designs I have or try to make a new design for each wedge?  Or should I only quilt every other wedge.  I have to admit I am leaning towards this idea because it means less quilting time but also because it gives the quilt depth bringing some wedges forward and pulling others back with the dense quilting.

When I am finished I hope to hang the quilt on this wall. This series of wooden wall art has been "hanging around" our house longer than I can remember.  Truthfully I am tired of looking at it.  That and tired of straightening the four individual pieces every time I walk by.