This fun, colorful quilt was pieced by another guild member and I picked it up... a while back... to do the quilting. I started on it over 2 1/2 years ago when I was first starting to free motion quilt. I had found Leah Day and was determined to learn how to free motion. I use a Viking 6690 with a 7" throat, and I was a bit intimidated by free motion quilting. With a little bit of help from Gordon at Viking Sewing Center and Leah's great videos, I was off and running. I decided that this philanthropy quilt was a great way to practice. I decided to quilt every other square in a checkerboard pattern, and to use a different quilting design in each of them. I did about 1/2 of the project, then I was hot to do some free motion quilting on some of my own projects. Then I started more other projects. And this quilt sat on the back burner. I decided it was high time to get this one into the finish category, so I made it my October ALYoF Goal. Once again I have ALYoF to thank for getting a project DONE!
The month started with my first 10K, followed by a foot injury that plagued me until right before our trip to Disneyland. I did manage to sew The Girl a new dress for our trip. The kids and I were all sick on vacation and I spent most of this week in the recliner and watching movies as I battled this virus. So I finally got started on finishing up the quilt yesterday or the day before. I had a dozen 6" squares to quilt, plus making and attaching the binding. Oh, and I still had to finish The Boy's Halloween costume. Well, this afternoon about 10 minutes before going out to trick or treat with the kiddos I finished putting the binding on the quilt. Phew! Here are some of my favorite patterns.








I need to free motion quilt more regularly. It would really help me to get back to the Building Blocks Quilt Along for regular practice. It's nice to see how far I've come and I continue to be amazed at how I can see progress on my skills across a project or even a single block!
A couple free motion quilting questions for you quilters out there: What kind of thread do you prefer for free motion quilting? If you piece and quilt with Aurifil, do you use the same weight thread for both?
Linking up to A Lovely Year of Finishes October Finishes Party, Fabric Frenzy Friday, Finish it Up Friday and TGIFF. Yay finished quilt!
Also linking up to Finish Along 2014 Wrap Up Party. Here's my full list of Q4 goals.