Design Wall Monday + Tuesday's To-Do List: Giverney Teleidoscope is Nearly a Flimsy

As of Sunday night, here's what Anders' high school graduation quilt looks like on my design wall:

All Nine Rows Completed!

All of my 11" kaleidoscope blocks now have their corners attached, and they are all sewn together into nine horizontal rows with their points matching up neatly at the seam lines.  Now all I need to do is to sew those rows together into a finished quilt top (or "flimsy") before I can load it onto my long arm frame for quilting.  My One (Two!) Monthly Goal(s) for April was(were) to finish piecing this kaleidoscope quilt top and to completely finish the bear paw quilt I shared a few days ago, so I think I'm going to end the month at two for two.  

Even though I had a pretty good idea what this quilt would look like with all of the pieces laid out and stuck to my design wall throughout construction, I love seeing the fuzzy design come into sharp focus as the piecing seams tidy everything up.  I am enjoying staring at this one, seeing the different shapes emerge in some areas and recede in others: triangles, Maltese crosses, curved diamonds, octagons and squares, as well as the curved orange peel design illusion that happens where the blocks come together at the corners.  I'm pleased with how this one is coming along.

Meanwhile, I quilted two small client quilts last week, one of them that I'm not yet at liberty to share, and the other one is this sweet baby quilt for a client:

Little Critters Forest Friends Panel Quilt with Nectar E2E Quilting

My client used the P & B Textiles Little Critters Forest Friends pattern to make her quilt (there's a kit available from an Etsy seller here).  We chose Anne Bright's Nectar pantograph design to embellish and add to the printed woodland scene of the center panel without detracting from it.  I scaled the design carefully so that the printed bees in the center panel are about 2/3 of the size of the quilted bees.  (I did not want my quilted bees to look like those giant killer bees that were in the news a few months ago!)  With this scale, the quilting density looks good on the quilt overall, and the different sized bees give the impression of depth, as though the larger bees are buzzing around closer to the viewer and the smaller printed bees are in the distance.  I used So Fine thread in White and Quilter's Dream Bamboo batting (formerly called Dream Orient) to ensure a super soft and cuddly finished quilt.  

I'll be trimming and binding the Forest Friends quilt prior to returning it to my client, and then I have an exquisitely pieced Hunter Star quilt that I get to quilt with a beautiful feather design for another client.  That is my favorite thing about quilting for clients -- I get to work in so many different aesthetics.  From a vividly-hued modern improv quilt to the muted neutrals and whimsy of a baby quilt, and then on to a traditional beauty.  It really prevents me from getting bored with my own piecing projects that drag on and on, being able to work on these other quilts in different colors and styles when I am getting bored with the repetition of piecing the same kaleidoscope blocks out of the same fabrics for weeks on end. 

This is the last week of April, and here are my goals for the week:

• Bind the Little Critters baby quilt and schedule the client pickup
• Join my kaleidoscope rows to complete my son's graduation quilt flimsy
• Load & quilt my client's Hunter Star quilt

PSST!!  I'd Love to Quilt for YOU!

By the way, if you or any of your quilty friends has a quilt top or two that needs quilting, I'd be delighted to quilt for you!  My turnaround for edge-to-edge quilting is currently running about 2 weeks, and you can click here to find out how to book your quilt with me.

I'm linking today's post with the following linky parties:

MONDAY

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts  

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

BOMs Away at What a Hoot Quilts

TUESDAY

To-Do Tuesday at ChrisKnits

WEDNESDAY

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter