Last week I showed you the finished Highland Cow Quilt…..

Today, let’s look at the rest of the quilting process…..

I had so much fun quilting it and thinking about what type of quilting to do in each area.

This is one quilt that I hated to give away!!

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This past week, I spent a morning with “Modern Quilt” artist, Cassandra Beaver. A guild in Atlanta had advertised her workshop about quilting circles, and I thought it sounded interesting.

It was interesting, but not about the topic that I thought it would be!!

I was expecting FMQ tips on quilting circles, but the class was really about how thread interacts with fabric to create different colors!! THIS topic was much more interesting!!

This was one of her samples for the class….

My preparation for the class was done quickly, and I just grabbed a few spools of variegated thread, so I couldn’t do what she was teaching, but it was still a fun exercise.

We started with fusible circles…..

…and playing with them to find a pleasing layout…..

Honestly, I could have spent hours just moving these circles around….it was so relaxing!

After fusing and basting, we started quilting….

I enjoyed using my limited thread selection to add non-symmetrical areas to the circles.

As I quilted, I was reminded of how much I enjoy quilting on my domestic machine. It has a wonderful stitch.

It sort of niggled at the back of my mind that my long-arm wasn’t giving me this nice of a stitch. When I got home, I made a few adjustments and was able to fix that problem easily.

It was GOOD that I was “forced” to use a different machine to see that there was a problem.

NOW FOR WHAT I REALLY LEARNED AT THE WORKSHOP…..

When Cassandra started talking about quilting the background, she mentioned doing pebbles. My first thought was NO…NO….NO….NO!!

BUT, she was talking about large pebbles where you stitch around them a bunch of times, separating them from one another and adding marvelous texture…..

Oh yes….THOSE kind of pebbles I can do!!

I can’t wait to try them out on a quilt soon.

So…the moral of this story is….

There is ALWAYS something new to learn…even if it isn’t exactly what you thought!!

Thanks, Cassandra (and East Cobb Quilters) for a sweet morning….

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Last week, I talked about the overthinking that I was doing on the graduation quilt I am making for my friend Claire….

Where do I go from here?

At this point, I was “letting it rest” to see if I came up with any more ideas.

While I was waiting, I went ahead and basted it, then started quilting. I figured that I could do what I KNEW first and then make this final decision!!

I started out by pinning on flower designs that I thought might work. I also rough-cut one flower and pinned it on too….

None of those truly inspired me!

Next. I QUILTED a flower on a scrap piece and added it to the quilt….

That was cute and less overwhelming than the fabric flowers.

Then, I wondered what would happen if I quilted the petals and added a fabric center….

DING…..DING…..DING…..DING……DING!!!!

I FOUND my solution!!

I cut out a flower template and an inside circle template.

Once traced onto the quilt….

….I was ready to start quilting.

The first thing that I realized was that I needed each stitch line to end INSIDE the center….

…and once I got the hang of it, they were fast and easy to do…..

Next, I will appliqué a yellow center over the messy quilting and add some quilting over the center.

The back of the quilt will not be PERFECT, but this is a fast and easy way to finish these flowers.

And since her graduation party is next Saturday, FAST and EASY is what I need!!

I will keep you updated!!

For Free-Motion Quilting ideas, be sure to check out my YouTube channel…… https://www.youtube.com/c/francesquilts/videos