Pillow tops undated

I've been working on the pillow tops. The quilting on the first one is finished. I did the last two sections free motion trying to make the lines change direction in 90 degree turns. Didn't work out perfectly, but I like how it did work out anyway.








This is quilting on the newest practice piece. I try to keep a blank quilt sandwich around. The teachers all say that you need to practice before quilting every time you start a new session, and they are right. They also suggest practicing what you plan on doing on the real quilted piece. So I keep a sandwich around to do all of that on.

Doing curved lines is always easier. This is a batch of leaves. I didn't expect the entire thing to turn out looking so all of a piece. This isn't what I'm doing on the second pillow top.

The second pillow top has all of its stabilizing quilting done. There are actually quilting lines in between the crazy piecing in the triangle, but you can't see it on this photo. I'm thinking about what will go into the two beige sections.

By the way that fabric on both pillows is not white. It actually is the color that the photos came out. A kind of off white.

The quilting teachers all say that if you can draw it, you can sew it free motion. So I've been drawing feathers and sprays of leaves. I'm at the point where I ought to try it out on the machine. On that practice piece in the picture above first, and then on the pillow top.

I still have a lot of trouble getting the stitch length to be all about the same length. That will come with more practice, but the big stitches aren't anywhere near as big as they used to be, and I do have a lot more control of the directions I'm going to be going with the lines of stitches.

I've got some of my older sample pieces around. I can see just how much progress there has been. Just the fact that I'm willing to think about sewing feathered plumes is proof of where I've been going. I've bought a couple of books, and a couple of multi-session classes (from Craftsy.com) and a couple of shorter classes from other places. I've watched You-Tube videos. And I've been practicing.  I like where this is going.

Take care all.