Background Quilting

I have been working on my background quilting.  Originally, I had a free motion quilting pattern that looked like flames that I wanted to use, but decided to keep it simple.  I've been having trouble with my tension, and I have to take my machine in for a good cleaning and "oil change."  In the meantime, though, I have registered this quilt to be in a quilt show Sept. 14-15, and I HAVE TO FINISH IT!  I ditched the flames stitching, and made a practice sandwich and tried out some other ideas.  I tried pastel variegated thread.  I like the idea of variegated threads, and I had good success with it in the butterfly quilt.  BUT, not this time.  So, ditch that idea.  I tried stippling.  This is where my tension really screwed up.  Those little turns were not going to work!  SO I resorted to the old "tried and true", but also one of my favorites--- Echoing!  Echoing is so easy, it's very forgiving, and it showcases the objects it surrounds.  It also goes very fast, and I did all the backgrounds of the blocks in a single day!  What's left you ask?  I have to quilt the borders (I might try that flame idea here, there's a lot more room) and I have to put on the binding!  ALMOST DONE!  This has been a a very fun quilt!

I got a little creative in the quilting of the larger objects too.  The Sorting Hat has purple spirals in it (hard to see in the picture, but very pretty). This was a little daring for me, the stitches are meant to SHOW!  It's subtle, but still not a matching color!  Whoo hooo!!   I also used yellow thread to echo the flame of the candle so it would appear to glow.  All the rest of the echoing is done in an off white thread.

The Sorting Hat

Echoing the Backgrounds