Secret Garden & Red Delicious Quilted

Hi Everyone,
Still not finding the time to write my blog regularly as have been on a roll with my stitching or rather quilting some of the tops that have been finished and waiting for me. This morning it is time for me to bring my diary a little more up to date.

First on my list was Secret Garden

Was very surprised to find that fmq finally seems to becoming easier for me, especially by the time I got to the end of the 70 something butterflies that I decided on for the backgrounds of my blocks.
Here are some closer pics.

 

With the applique butterflies I had already added I only stitched around all the applique in the center

A simple cross pattern for the corner blocks and replicated the applique motif in the triangles.

then it was butterflies

And more butterflies

Copied the different butterflies in each block so there was a variety to quilt.

Above photo shows the curved ruler Steve made for me for quilting around these blocks, he has also made me a straight ruler so have been practising with that as well.

Happy with Secret Garden it was time to start on Red Delicious.
I was really in a quandry about what to do as all the blocks are very different so didn't want to just use one pattern for everything. Decided the best way was just to start and see where it led me.

My straight ruler worked better than I expected

This scared me, some wobbles but best I could do.

I like doing clamshells, they were lots easier than I thought they would be.

Lots of searching to find a pattern I was comfortable with for these panels

Same design for here

Back to clamshells for this one.

And for here

 The clamshell blocks form part of the center panel 

so wanted to keep some order to my quilting

Wasn't sure what to do here so started by adding a simple vine to the main trunks.

Liked it so added it to the rest of the block

So much open space on this block I wasn't sure if I could keep my free motion consistent so
used a motif instead.

Very happy with how it came out

reduced the motif so I could use it again for this block

Cross hatch for this little block

Almost feathers for the Fan Block

Mix of the two sizes of motif for the central block.

Then the tablecloth had to be done

Echoed the curve of the tablecoth

was going to crosshatch this tablecloth but decided

the diagonal lines on there own gave more depth to the block

The heart then needed echo quiting as well

Finally the top and bottom borders.

RD is a rectangular quilt but not by a great amount so decided to do vertical stitching

 top and bottom to lengthen it visually

All done and am so happy with how it looks.

Biggest thing for me with finishing these two quilts is realising that my Free motion quilting is slowly improving and I am feeling more confident to try different things.

Still have more catching up to do with my blog diary but at least these two are recorded.

Enjoy your week everyone whatever you are doing.

Cheers Jenny