WIP: I'm Thinking

Earlier in the week I was stymied on the path forward for quilting my Vintage Ornaments Christmas Quilt. I was trying to decide between 1) sending it out, 2) renting time on a long arm, 3) FMQing it myself, or 4) just simply doing a stitch in the ditch approach with minimal quilting.

I decided on the second option and scheduled next Monday at my quasi-local quilt shop Always Quilting to rent time on their long-arm to quilt it. Now I need to decide a quilting pattern. Here are a couple options I am playing with. In the solid-colored pseudo-sashing I  think I want to do  some wavy or straight lines unevenly spaced with intermittent little bursts that I hope will look like dangling snowflakes or bows and not flower petals. I think if I keep the tips pointed and the loops skinny I can avoid the flower look. And the spikes echo the look of the pine needles. Since the solid color is discontinuous and not a true sashing, I have my fingers crossed that I can figure out a path once I am on the machine.

I am still undecided on what to do within the printed portion of the blocks. I usually just imitate the pattern in the prints in my quilts but I want to get to a skill level beyond this cheater fabric approach. Besides, each block has two different size scales of print. I paired them that way to get contrast within the block. But I had not considered that the scale of the quilting pattern to go with each. I think it would be too distracting, busy, and a logistical nightmare to quilt the center print and side bar prints differently. Most FMQ in the modern arena is on solids so this is a non-issue.

A swirl pattern is the first possibility I tried, aiming to imitate the effect of swirling snow like in Frozen. The jury is still out on this one. Even if I got really good at this pattern, there is usually not much swirling snow going on inside where vintage ornaments are typically hung. I signed up to take an online class on Craftsy by Leah Day on Free Motion Fillers. Although it is for FMQ and not longarm, I hope I get some inspiration on filler ideas to use within the printed fabrics of the blocks. This is my first time taking an online Craftsy class and so far, so good. I better learn fast and decide by Monday!

Until I come up with the quilting pattern, I've been taking my mind off it by doing little projects that I can finish in short order. I have made an alphabet cloth book for my older granddaughter complete with little animal inserts. The book is a Riley Blake panel that I bought in Oklahoma a few months ago while visiting my daughter. Details and a cute story about the purchase are in my post for March 26, 2014. I have a second one to make for my younger granddaughter in California.

A center pocket panel in the book holds the little critters. I used a fat quarter of the multi-colored polka dot fabric for the background of the pocket panel and I backed the critters with a cheery orange mini-polka dot. My California granddaughter's version will have different prints for the center panel and animal backings. I have already picked them out but am not revealing them yet.

I have also sewn the almost two-year old a pillowcases with a lion print because she really loves The Lion King. It is small, for a 12" x 16" pillow and I just shipped it off for her upcoming birthday.

I spent a good part of this week writing up my contribution for the Around the World Blog Hop which I published in my October 6, 2014 post. I has been a busy week. I am now linking up to this week's Freshly Pieced Works In Progress Wednesday.