One for the Guild Boutique!

Got 'er done not too long ago!  Sorry the pics are taken inside.

Here are the three different threads I used, grey Isacord, a yellow Sulky rayon, and Heirloom fine cotton.  All went through the Avanté like a dream with no tension adjustments!!  How I love this machine.

For the dot-to-dot diamonds in the four yellow corner squares, I used the blue ruler that Angela Walters uses with a little more success than the last time, so that makes me happy.  I guess it will take a lot of practice, as most skills do, right?!  I was happy to use one of the designs we learned in her Dot to Dot Quilting class on Craftsy.  I stitched in the ditch for the yellow triangle sections and then echoed that with a wavy line.

Here is it on the Avanté:

Love that corner design, one I learned in Dot To Dot Quilting

I knew right away that I wanted to fill the star with a swirl design, as the quilt is all sharp angles.  It was fun and I love how it turned out, even though my swirls have room for improvement!  When I'm quilting it, I'm thinking, "Oh no....oops...eeek...where to next....relax your shoulders..." but overall impression is pretty decent, so it is a forgiving filler!

In the grey area, I did a loopy meander with a five-pointed crazy star.

The back with the label as a part of the backing.  Nothing fancy, just a rail fence block.  I called the quilt "Offset Star."  I used up all of that pale yellow for the backing and cut up the marginal remainder into six 2 1/2" squares.  One more piece off the fabric shelves!

Full back view.  I machine-stitched the binding down for this one.  I rarely do that as I'm not too good at it (but on this one I only had to go back into one spot that I missed catching it, so I'm improving), but I prefer the look of the hand-stitched binding, and I do enjoy that part of the process too!

Love all that texture

And the race to get the runner handquilted?  Slo-o-o-w process.  I'm doing a "simple" (cough) cable in the border.  I'm probably doing the marking and the quilting process all wrong, but too bad, as it's not going in any show or contest!!  Here's what I did this morning:

Bottom edge is quilted using a different process than the side edge...but they are both going to turn out the same...I hope!

Hard to see I know.  I made a plastic template for the "snake" section with registration marks.  Used the Clover pink chalk pencil as I could not see the Bohin one well enough.  (The cable design is between the two marking pencils in the photo below.)  Then I got all confused as to which line I was quilting, as the outside top line of one oval becomes the inside bottom line of the next.  And then I realized that the ovals in the design are not identical!  Are you kidding me?  So I made an "eye" template for the inside oval.  Cut it out of a little paper (hi-tech stuff here I tell you) and made a registration mark for the next "eye" so I can space them apart properly.  This design is out of a book I got from Joe for Christmas in 2000: Quilting Patterns by Linda Macho.

I love that thimble!

I drew them on the opposite border edge and quilted those.  Yep.  I'm going to continue with this "eye" method.  But I'll make a template out of the template plastic now that I know it works.  Then I can mark the "snake" lines after and all the eyes will be the same size and shape (with any luck)!!

Speaking of luck, I'll need a ton of it to get this done in time for that draw!

Nearly forgot:  the dogs have joined me for the past two days downstairs (they prefer being upstairs, to keep tabs on the pesky squirrels).  Naala was in a goofy mood today:

She lay like that for several minutes!!  Silly girl.