Quilting done

All quilted and binding done. What a beautiful sunny day perfect for picture taking, I enlisted the help of my dear hubby today. Without further ado here it is. I made the lap size. This is going to be my new snuggle quilt.

A closer view of the quilting. I need to practice straight lines. They did look straighter before I washed it. You've heard the story of the washing machine eating the socks... well I think the washing machine made the quilting lines crooked. Right? 

Feathers aren't perfect but I do believe they are getting better. They are all freehand, and that in itself is a biggie for me. Just need more practice. I didn't quilt the purple crosses I left them blank.

A shot of the back the texture shows up nice. 

Lining up to Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River.

Top finished

I have my top finished for the Irish Chain QAL. The green piece on top is what I'm going to use for the back. Bet you can't tell my favorite colour is green... lol  I like this quilt top. Now on to some FMQing.

 I'm using my new camera. I bought a Canon Elph until I decide what kind of camera I want. I would like a DSLR, not sure whether to get a Canon or Nikon or ?? Decisions, decisions, and more decisions. I need to do some research.

Quilting Ideas?

I have been working on quilting ideas for my Irish Chain Twist. A few pictures of how I decide what design I'm going to quilt. I use my domestic machine to do all my FMQing.

I roughly draw the design on a piece of clear gift wrap that I get at the dollar store. I use a permanent or Sharpie marker to make the outline sketch. I also print out a part of the quilt pattern in black and white and doodle a few ideas their first.

Here is a closer shot of the printed pattern. Not so sure about what I have, so it's back to the doodling part. I hope you can see my sketch okay. The left side is just some angled lines a little harder to see. 

A closer view of the clear gift wrap I use dry erase markers to audition the quilting patterns before I make a decision. The good part about the giftwrap and dry erase markers is they just wipe right off, with a dry paper towel if you don't like what you have. As you can see I don't have patterns on it yet. 

After a little playing I have a few choices. Although I am still playing around, and may not use any of these at all. 

If you try this and like a design you've come up with. Just remember the dry erase markers wipe off easy on your hands so be very careful near your quilt top. I don't place these on or near my top as I'm afraid of getting marks on my top I may not be able to get rid of. You can trace the final design on tracing paper using a permanent marker and use that as a template with a lightbox to mark your quilt top with the appropriate marking tools.