Quilting, quilting, quilting!! :D

Where is my happy place? At my machine quilting! I've been spending a good amount of time doing just that over the past several weeks. I have a finished quilt to share with you today. I have been doing some quilting for Kat for her Covered In Love charity. I have been thinking about how I might be able to help Kat out with this charity for awhile. I had given her a rather large box of my pesky scraps and it has been so fun to see those fabrics being made into quilts that cover someone in their final days and then go home with the family when that someone passes. If you haven't visited Kat's blog or are not aware of her charity, please check out the link above. She has a block drive every month. Each month she gives instructions and color themes for blocks. You can send one, 100 or a finished top. The block drive has produced many quilts already and there are many in the works. As I was thinking about how I could help out, I had one of those slap your forehead duh moments. . . I can quilt some of those tops! I'll admit, this was a little bit selfish on my part - like I said in the beginning, quilting definitely puts me in my happy place! So I emailed Kat, told her I would be more than happy to help her out and she said yes! And I did a happy dance! A week later I received two tops in the mail. Let the fun begin!!

Here's my first finish:

I know, weird shadows this morning! Yes, I should have taken the time to move it over. . . but that would have meant moving chairs around, risking falling on my head and generally eat into time I need for quilting! ;)

I really did try to restrain myself and not quilt the crap out of this quilt. I think I found a happy medium place. I used wool batting (of course I did!! haha) so this quilt is very soft and snuggly!

I had the quilt folded and getting it to hang without a bend in the center was not happening. Love the texture and how  those little squares pop out of the triangles. I used a yellow gold thread for the feathers (Aurifil 40 Wt) and orange for the squares and loops (Aurifil 40 wt).

How cool is this picture from the back with the sun shining through???? LOVE!!

I used matching thread in the bobbin for all of the quilting. I have been finding that using the same weight thread (not necessarily the same color but in this case it is) reduces my thread breakage to nil. I think I had two thread breaks in this entire quilt. Not bad!

I thought about agonized over what to put in the corner squares for far too long . . . in the end I decided to do the same feather design as the one in the middle diamond in the quilt. The border had me stumped too.... In the end, I just sat down and started quilting. Sometimes that works for me, sometimes it doesn't - this time I think it worked out well :) The border and squares were quilted with Aurifil Poly for long arms. I absolutely LOVE this thread!! It is also 40 wt.

I bound this with fabric in my stash. . . check it out - it is the same exact Handspray fabric that is found in the quilt!! What are the chances? :)

I have the second top basted, ditched and I've started the quilting. That one should be finished in the next day or two. I told you, sitting at my machine quilting is definitely my happy place!! So I have found a way to help Kat out with her charity and I am having SO much fun doing it! If you want to get involved, make a block, make a top, make a quilt, go check out Kat's blog and see what fun blocks she is collecting this month! And here is the link directly to her Covered In Love page on her site.

I have also finished a flimsy. . . I'll blog about that this week as well - really! ;) In the mean time, I am going to get back to my machine!!

Linking up with Lorna for Let's Bee Social and Amanda Jean for Finish it up Friday. I can't wait to see what everyone else has been up to!





Until next time, keep on quilting!!