neighborhood quilting

"All Around the Neighborhood" is quilted!

I used a large meandering stitch all over the quilt center. It just fades into the background so the main focus is the blocks. King Tut is my favorite quilting thread - this is number 960 "Morning Sky", a variegated thread with very pale blues and white - and I'm really happy with both the color and the stitching.

In the 4" borders I free-motion quilted a sun (or is it a sunflower?). My original grandiose plan was to quilt a row of suns in the top border, a row of tulips on the bottom, and on the sides stitch the words "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood" and "Please won't you be my neighbor". But then I couldn't figure out how to get the whole right end of the quilt crammed under the machine arm to write/stitch from left to right, nor could I manage to write/stitch legibly sideways down each side! So on to Plan B (less grandiose but hopefully still fun :)

I found the sun pattern in Follow-the-Lines Quilting Designs Volume 4. I had hoped to trace the pattern on to Golden Threads paper and just stitch over it, but the pattern size was for a 5 1/2" border. Drat! So I took out my notebook and just drew it over and over again to practice. I did measure and mark each border into 5" segments to provide even spacing of the motif and a target for each sun's center point.

The first one didn't turn out that great...

but I got much better by the second border... Free-motion quilting really is my least favorite part of the process; I always dread it and it gives me such stress. I guess it's because it's so difficult to pick it out, as well as the fact that it can make or break (IMHO) a quilt. So it's always such a relief when it's finished, and such a joy when it turns out well :)

The backing is Moda Wildflowers IV Mini-Floral in light blue.

I'll post another photo of the entire quilt when the binding is finished :) Right now I think my shoulders need a massage...