Saturday musings

Another quilt done on my long arm.  I still have a ways to go, but I'm really enjoying this.  2 hours, loaded to off the machine.  No more crawling around on the floor for an hour, pinning the heck out of a quilt.  And no more stuffing oodles of fabric and batting through a little 7" throat on my Husqvarna.  I can see what I'm doing, things don't shift, and the machine (mostly) plays nice with me :)

I tried a couple different things this time.  I did a border design.  I thought I'd try taking the quilt off and turning it, to complete the side borders rather than stopping and starting my way down the length.  Neat idea, but I quilted a small crease into the backing by doing this - I didn't stretch it quite enough when attaching back to the frame.  At least I know what to be careful of for next time.

In the main area, I did a small stipple in the focus blocks, around the animals to make them stand out.   Then a  simple meander in the brown background, and a wave along the striped border sections.

And then, because I needed a break, I did some work on my colour challenge quilt for this month.  I had not planned to do one - the palette did not really speak to me, and I had so much to do with the new long arm.  But I pulled some fabric a week ago, and decided to do a quick small quilt.  Quick I still agree with, even if the ladies at the LQS laughed when I showed them my definition of quick :) 

However, I did not manage the "small" part.  This star is 50" square (once I add the background blocks it will be square, anyway). So, since it is so big already, I'm going to add a top/bottom border about 10" each, and then another border all around, to make it about 60x80 - which should be about right for a twin bed.