Center is Quilted

Quilting the kaleidoscope presented some challenges.  Not so much as how to do it, but WHAT do do.  So many sections!  I didn't want to lose any of the "WOW" factor that I feel this medallion center has.  I didn't want any quilting to detract from the design and colors of the center.  I looked at the Gallery of Quilts in Ricky Tim's book, and a lot of those quilts were quilted with meanders, feathers, flowers, pebbles, squiggles, waves, and various other free motion designs and I think the quilt design suffered from all that busy-ness.  So I decided to keep it simple and just stitch in the ditch.  I'm not that good at stitch in the ditch, and some of my lines are wobbly, but I think it is just fine and I'm not going to redo it.  It's not that noticeable from the front (which is the whole point of stitch-in-the-ditch!).  It shows more so on the back, however, because I used a darker thread.

Quilted on Front

Quilting on Back

Now, midway thought quilting this inner section, Bob received a package in the mail.  It was my Christmas present, and he decided to give it to me early!!  So that I could use it in quilting my quilt!  What a sweetheart!  It was a special "ruler work" sewing machine foot!!  And some templates, a "starter" set.  (More on this later!)  Well of course I had to try them out!!!  So I added in some clam shells, and a flower design in the very center. You can see this on the picture above.  But mostly, I used my straight edge ruler for straight lines in stitching in the ditch, and so the later part of this quilting in this section is much improved with my new rulers!  I also did ruler work for nice straight radiating lines in the corners.  It's so much easier with rulers, and such better results!!    Notice (in the above picture) wobbly crocked lines in the center areas, and the outer part, nice and straight!