We have officially entered the final quarter of 2018 and I don’t know about you, but for me it’s my busiest time of year and my most favorite. If I were to pick a favorite month of the year, October would be it. Today is my oldest son’s birthday (Happy Birthday Jerm!), it’s my birthday month, the leaves begin to change color and I start anticipating the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

Last week I was really feeling some holiday cheer because of the quilt I was quilting for Emily. Remember I told you last week I would be working on a red/gold/cream quilt? I put the final stitches in it yesterday, added the binding, and it’s ready to be delivered.

I’m pretty pleased with the way it looks. Sometimes it takes hours or even days for a quilt to speak to me and tell me how to quilt it. This one started talking before I even had it loaded. That’s a good thing as I had a deadline to meet and didn’t have time to be wishy-washy over the quilting plan. (Although there are a couple of things I would change if I had a do over.)

There is a combination of free motion designs and ruler work throughout. The swirls are nowhere near perfect, but when I take a step back and look at the whole quilt they blend into the background creating a wonderful texture.

The borders were easy – simple piano keys in the outer border spaced 1″ apart, and diamonds stitched in the green border. Those piano keys are one of my favorites to quilt in a border. If you’ve been hanging out with me for very long, you probably already know that. 🙂

I learn something new with every top I quilt and with this one the lesson was about choosing thread colors. It’s hard to capture in pictures, but the red and green fabrics have gold metallic throughout. My initial thought was that I would use a gold thread to blend in and mostly just show the texture in the quilting motifs. So it was surprising to me that every gold thread I auditioned clashed terribly with the fabrics. After testing multiple thread colors, the one that worked the best was an Omni thread (Superior Threads). The color is called Creek Bed. Sounds dull and boring, but it worked beautifully. It appears to shine when on the metallic fabrics, and looks like a totally different thread when used on the background prints.

“Creek Bed’ looks dull and boring on the cone, but comes to life on the quilt.

I love the way the Bottom Line thread melts into the back of the fabric and the only thing you really see is the texture. I’ve been resisting (mostly) the urge the just sit and pet the back.

This quilt was really the only thing I accomplished last week. I did start cutting some fat quarters for a few holiday projects that I need to finish before Christmas. As soon as I have something more exciting than a stack of cut pieces of fabric to show you I’ll be able to share. This week I have three baby quilts to quilt for customers, I’ll be working at the shop three days for the Mountain Quest Shop Hop, and on Friday I’ll be heading out to spend the weekend at my sister’s with the rest of our family. So my week will be busy with quilting, shopping, and family. What could be more fun?

So now you’re up to date with me. It’s time for you to share what you are working on and what has you excited to be in your sewing space. You can link up any blog post, Instagram or Flickr pic – here’s how:

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