The Tension Wrecker Apprehended: Pigtail Guide on M-Class Bobbin Case Increases Bobbin Tension!

Good morning, friends, and happy Sunday!  I've just returned from "Drive By Communion" in my church parking lot!  I kid you not -- Crazy times.  We watched the live streamed worship online this morning as usual (or, as has BECOME usual since early March), but this is the first Sunday since early March that they've offered in-person communion in the parking lot, served by masked and gloved pastors.  We are blessed at Christ Lutheran with church leadership that is faithful, creative, and prudent.  We didn't see a lot of cars when we went for Drive-By communion following the Traditional service, but I'll bet there will be more who come at lunch time, after the Contemporary service.  My husband wanted to have his sins forgiven and then "get on with his day," as he put it.  Oh, and do you like the mask he decided to wear for Holy Communion, complete with a little red devil next to his nose?  It's not like that's the only one I made him, either.  Maybe the pastor didn't notice.  More likely, my pastor would not care.  [For more information about how I made my masks, and a link to download the pattern, see this blog post].

Check Out the Mask My Husband Picked Out for Holy Communion (?!)

I did head up to the studio for several hours after yesterday's overload of puppy cuteness.  It took me at least two hours to rip out the really bad tension stitches from my quilt, and it was disheartening work since I was so proud of some of that free motion work when I was looking at it from the top side of the quilt.  

Behold, Love's Labors Lost

Some days are like that, and it's all part of the process.  I only took out the very worst stitching, what I knew would result in thread hanging loose on the back side of the quilt after washing if I'd left it in.  The not-quite-perfect-but-structurally-sound stitches got to stay in.

All This Wretchedness Got Ripped Out

So in the photo above, the outlines of the rectangles had been stitched first, with nicely balanced tension, and then disaster struck a few days later when I decided to come back and fill in every other one with a squiggle.  But I think I figured out what went wrong that day, and as long as I learned something from all of this, it wasn't a waste, after all!  

Note to Self: Threading the Pigtail Guide on the M-Class Bobbin Case INCREASES Bobbin Tension

On the Disastrous Day of Stitching That All Had to be Ripped Out, I believe I unintentionally unbalanced my tension by slipping the thread tail through the pigtail guide, adding a little more tension to the bobbin thread without making any adjustment to the top thread tension.  After running the machine unthreaded for 15 minutes to warm up the motor, I was impatient to start quilting and figured "My tension was excellent yesterday, nothing has changed since then, so no need to do any test stitching today."  

APQS M-Class Bobbin Case, Pigtail Guide Threaded

I vaguely remember that, when I took my bobbin case out to oil the hook at the beginning of that Fateful Day of Frightful Tension, I dropped my bobbin case on the carpeted floor and my bobbin popped out of its case.  When I reinserted the bobbin, I had this split second of doubt about whether I'd been using the little pigtail thread guide of my M-Class bobbin case.  I knew I'd experimented both ways, with and without threading the guide, when I was adjusting the tension, but I hadn't made a note of which way I ended up doing it.  I figured I'd PROBABLY threaded the pigtail, and didn't think it would make a huge difference...  Wrong!

APQS M-Class Bobbin case, Pigtail Guide Unthreaded

APQS recommendations using this guide "for best results with most threads" because it helps to ensure that the bobbin thread is properly positioned to catch the hook with every stitch, but it does put some additional resistance on the bobbin thread.  Which I should have known, since previous Berninas that I've owned in the past had the same little pigtail guide and you were supposed to thread the pigtail for embroidery or satin stitches, where you want the top thread to pull slightly to the back side.  Don't misunderstand me; I'm not saying to never thread the pigtail guide.  I could still get balanced stitches with the pigtail threaded if I increased the upper thread tension accordingly.  And, if I was getting skipped stitches with the pigtail unthreaded, for example, threading the pigtail would be the first thing I'd try for an instant fix.  However, when changing from no pigtail to pigtail threaded midstream, it's important to check and adjust the upper thread tension again to ensure that the stitch is still balanced.  The pigtail is like adding one more person to Team Bobbin in the game of tug-of-war, without adding any more pulling power to Team Needle Thread!

With any thread combination, you can get balanced stitches both with and without threading the bobbin case pigtail.  You can have an evenly matched tug-of-war with three people on each team or with five people on each team, right?  I think I determined in my test stitching that my stitches were more attractive with the particular thread combination I'm using for this quilt (50 weight So Fine in the needle with 60 weight Bottom Line in the bobbin) when tension was balanced but a little looser overall versus balanced but tight overall tension.  Think two duds pulling from each side rather than four dudes pulling from each side. So I had skipped the pigtail and then adjusted my upper thread to balance the looser bobbin tension.  

Well, at least I've learned something, right?  I need to put a sticky note somewhere to remind myself of whether or not I'm using the bobbin pigtail guide on a particular project.  And I should probably get in the habit of ALWAYS doing some test stitching and/or crawling under the frame, run my fingernail along the stitching line on the back of the quilt, or SOMETHING after a few minutes of quilting to check that all is well under there before I put in thousands of stitches that will take forever to rip out.

I am remembering -- and now following! -- advice that quilter Jamie Wallen shared in his long arm tension video tutorial (above) several years ago.  Jamie recommends that you start by adjusting your tension so that the bobbin thread is pulled up to the top of your quilt and then loosening your top tension until you can just see the dots of bobbin thread in the needle holes.  When your quilt comes off the frame and relaxes, those little bobbin thread dots will settle back into the middle of the quilt sandwich, but seeing those dots of bobbin from the right side as you're quilting is your insurance that you are not getting flatlining and eyelashing on the back of your quilt!

One more thought: This is my first time using Quilter's Dream Cotton Select batting on my long arm.  I know I read somewhere -- maybe in my APQS new owner class handouts? -- that a batting with a bit more loft, like an 80/20 blend or wool, is more forgiving for longarm quilting because more batting loft equals more room in the middle of your quilt sandwich for the needle and bobbin thread to lock together without showing through on either side of the quilt.  I am already seeing that the all-cotton batting is not giving me as much dimensional contrast between the unquilted rectangles and the squiggled ones, so I will probably steer clear of 100% cotton batting on the long arm going forward.

Recently Ripped Out and Requilted.  It Was Better the First Time

This section was all ripped out and requilted yesterday.  I thought that maybe I didn't need to use a stencil this time, since the needle holes were still visible from the previous quilting, but I couldn't see them well enough as I was actually stitching out the design.  The result: Notice how these curls are slightly square?  That was the problem I was trying to avoid in the first place, by stenciling guidelines onto the quilt before quilting it.  Well, the next one will be better, right?

I'm looking forward to making some progress quilting NEW areas of the quilt later today!  The other project that I've been working on in weekly dribbles is my FrankenWhiggish Rose needle turned appliqué.  My bee group has been doing virtual Zoom get togethers every Monday throughout the pandemic shutdown, and this is what I work on during that time.  I haven't been sharing it because I'm trying to work efficiently, doing all 16 leaves on all 9 blocks before moving on to the next shape, and it would be really boring if I kept posting photos of the same block over and over again...  It is definitely getting boring to be STITCHING the same exact block over and over again!  That is one of the great benefits of sampler quilts -- variety!

Still Plodding Along with my FrankenWhiggish Rose Needle Turn Applique Project

As a reminder, this is what the first (and only) completed block looks like (below).  All eight of the other blocks are in the process of getting their leaves, like the block shown above.

One Block Completed, Eight Still In Progress at the Leaf Stage

I am definitely looking forward to moving on to the tulips soon.  Hope I still remember how to do the deep inside points and the reverse appliqué  but if I don't remember, I'll just have to relearn it!  I'm linking up today's post with:

SUNDAY

·       Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts  

·       Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

MONDAY

·       Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts  

·       Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

·       BOMs Away Katie Mae Quilts  

Name Your Goliath: My Giant Is Named JINGLE, So I'm Quilting It Anyway

Oh my gosh, you guys -- I'm so glad I went to church last Sunday!  The sermon at Christ Lutheran was PERFECT for helping me get over my fear of "messing up" my Jingle quilt by quilting it poorly!  

If you have ever felt intimidated by something (sewing related or otherwise) that seems too big, too complicated, or too difficult for you, then today's post is for you.

Center Appliqué Medallion for my Big, Scary Jingle Quilt, Erin Russek's Pattern Available here

The text for the sermon was I Samuel 17, the story of the young shepherd boy, David, who defeated the mighty warrior giant Goliath despite being completely outmatched and out of his league by all outward appearances.  Pastor Scott talked about fear, courage, loss, bravery, and faith, and about the difference between how we tend to judge people (by outward appearances) versus how God judges people (by their hearts).  He asked us to visualize and silently name the "giants" in our own lives that may be holding us back, holding us captive: a divorce that makes us feel we will never know love again?  The death of a loved one that has taken all of our joy?  A financial failure, job loss, a terrifying medical diagnosis, or feeling that we can never measure up to the impossible standards of this world?  Seriously, this was a great sermon and if you're interested, you can listen to it online here.  The sermon begins about 23 minutes into the worship service.

David With the Head of Goliath by Caravaggio, Ca. 1600 (Photo Courtesy Museo Nacional del Prado)

So, what does this have to do with my Jingle quilt top?  Well, I have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving  -- and on Sunday, as my pastor was ticking off the different kinds of giants we have to face throughout our lives, I realized that I'm currently "between major giants," so to speak.  Right this minute, I'm not dealing with any life catastrophes, and the first "giant" that popped into my mind that has been paralyzing me with fear and robbing me of joy is this Jingle quilt top that has been languishing in my closet, unfinished, because I'm so afraid to "ruin" by quilting it poorly.  

Behold, the Vicious Giant From Whom I've Cowered In Fear!

SERIOUSLY?!!  When other people have REAL problems?!  I sang at all three services last weekend, so I got to listen to this sermon three times.  What makes it a really great sermon in my opinion, is its universality -- its ability to speak to men, women, and children of all ages, from all walks of life, empowering each of us to apply the power of Scripture to whatever we may be struggling with in that moment in time.  That's why I spend my Sunday mornings at church instead of sleeping in, going out for brunch or reading the Sunday papers in my pajamas.  There is no better antidote to the negative messages we're all bombarded with in the modern world than communal worship and music coupled with a really good sermon.

Stitching the Appliqué By Hand, Thousands of Tiny Stitches, One Piece At a Time

Machine quilting is scarier to me than hand quilting -- or any kind of hand stitching -- because a needle in my hand always lands exactly where I want it to pierce the fabric (provided I'm wearing my glasses, that is!).  If I make an ugly stitch, I can pull just that one stitch out and keep going with a hand needle.  Sewing machines, whether domestic sit-down or longarm machine on a frame like mine, are less forgiving, more difficult to control with precision, and stitches that take 30 seconds to make can take an hour and a half to rip out!  However, the look that I want for this quilt is custom machine quilting over a double batting, with fairly dense background quilting behind the appliqué to give it a three-dimensional "pop."  And I've never attempted a quilt like that before.

One of My Favorite Appliqué Blocks From My Jingle Quilt

Today, in this moment, my giants are Crippling Perfectionism and Fear-of-Failure.  My giant taunts me by holding up the masterpieces of nationally-renowned quilters who have decades of experience behind them -- as though this was a reasonable standard of comparison for a beginner like me.

Yes, I love this quilt top; yes, I spent a very long time making it, and no, I really don't want to mess it up.  -- BUT --

• This was my first appliqué project.  I love it, but it's not perfect -- despite the hundreds of hours that went into making it, this is likely the WORST hand appliqué quilt I will ever make.
• If I can't practice custom quilting on my own worst, first appliquéd quilt top, whose quilt am I ever going to practice on?  
• I wanted to try hand appliqué for at least 10 years before pattern designer Erin Russek's Jingle Block of the Month (as well as her inspirational blog posts and tutorials at One Piece At a Time) encouraged me to give it a try -- not worrying about the whole quilt all at once, just taking it one piece at a time.  Think of what I could have created in the last 10 years if I hadn't been so afraid to try!
• If I put it back in the closet and wait until I'm "good enough" to quilt it, it will probably NEVER get quilted at all.

Now, I'm not going to go so far as to say that the Almighty Creator of the Universe is up there on His throne, organizing a host of angels specifically to help me defeat this quilt as part of His plan for eternal salvation...  However, I DO believe that our human capacity for creativity is part of what it means to be Imago Dei, created in God's image.  Compared to the awesome complexity and breathtaking beauty of every plant and creature in an ecosystem, the majesty of a crashing waterfall or a mountain skyline, ALL of our human artwork must look like preschool macaroni projects to God Almighty, even the works of a master like Michelangelo.  Yet I don't see dogs, frogs or potatoes out there making art; do you?  Human beings are unique in our capacity to create.  It's a gift from our Creator that we're meant to use and enjoy, and the fear of messing up or not being good enough is just a lie that gets in the way.

Creation of Adam (Detail) by Michelangelo, 1508-1512, Sistine Chapel of the Vatican in Rome

Another interesting point Pastor Scott made in his sermon was that God had already started preparing to help David defeat that giant long before David was even born -- in the creation of the Jordan river alongside the battlefield, putting those rocks in place and washing them smooth through thousands of years of abrasion from the silt, sand, and other rocks in the flowing water.  God always shows up, God is never taken by surprise, and God is always ready to help us by giving us the tools we need and putting people in our lives who can help us defeat our giants.  If we can just strip away the fear that blinds us with lies of inadequacy and weakness, we will find that we have had the strength to move mountains all along. 

One of the Pieced Blocks in my Jingle Quilt

That got me thinking.  I absolutely have the resources, the time, and the equipment I need for this.  I have taken classes with nationally renowned longarm quilters to learn 
the techniques for this project, and I am blessed to have one of the best quilting machines on the market sitting up in my studio, ready to go.  I have the right needles, the right threads, the right battings, all the best marking utensils, quilting rulers and templates.  I have people in my life who can help me if I run into trouble and get stuck, and the skills I lack can only be developed through practice.  If a little shepherd boy named David can take on a nine foot, heavily armored, full-grown warrior with nothing but a slingshot, then I should be able to tackle the quilting of my own appliqué quilt!

Embroidering the Dates on the Birdie Block

I'm planning to load my Jingle quilt on my frame and start quilting it as soon as the Thanksgiving festivities are behind us, and then I'll take it one step at a time, without rushing to meet a December 31st deadline.  I am looking forward to blasting Christmas music in my studio while I'm working on it, too!  

Thanks to all of you who weighed in on this one on both sides.  To those in the United States who are celebrating, have a Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm linking up today's post with:

·       Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

·       Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation  

·       Whoop Whoop Fridays at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

·       Beauty Pageant at From Bolt to Beauty

·       Finished Or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts

Lars's Graduation and Quillow (Quilt) Sunday 2019: It's A Wrap!

You guys -- my firstborn baby just graduated from high school!!!  Lars's commencement ceremony was Saturday afternoon and then on Sunday morning we had the Quillow Service at Christ Lutheran Church for all of our high school graduates.  Our church has been doing this every year for the past 20 years, and if you're a quilter living in the Charlotte, North Carolina area, you ought to come check it out next year.  If you're interested in seeing what the Quillow Service is all about, the video is available online here and the Quillow Blessing begins about 45 minutes into the service.

From Left to Right: My Younger Son Anders, My Husband Bernie, My Graduate Lars, Me, and My Mother

First off, what's a quillow?  A quillow is a quilt with a pocket sewn on the back so it can be folded up into a pillow.  My quilt for Lars doesn't have one of these pockets because it would have limited and complicated my quilting options and Lars was never going to fold his up into a pillow anyway -- this quilt is going on the bed in his college dorm room in the Fall.  Most of the other kids have the kind of quilt that folds up into a pillow, those are the directions that were given out by the church, and that's why it's a Quillow Service and not a Quilt Service.  It wasn't a mandatory feature or anything, and I opted to disregard the instructions.

All of the high school seniors process into the sanctuary wearing their caps and gowns during our contemporary worship service.  They are all different colors because the kids from our church come from so many different high schools.  My kiddo and his classmates from Ardrey Kell High School are wearing purple.

Group Photo of the 2019 Graduates

Graduates Stretched Out Across the Sanctuary With Their Families and Their Quilts

At some point during all of this, there's a slideshow on the big screens with each child's baby picture and high school graduation picture, as well as their plans for the Fall.

Then the parents, grandparents and siblings come up and we wrap a QUILT around our graduate, lay our hands on him or her, and give them this blessing:

I come this day before God to bless you and thank Him for your life.  You have given my life a deeper meaning and calling.  Through you, I have experienced God's love, joy and forgiveness.  Wherever you go, whatever you do, my love goes with you, and you will always be a part of my heart.  May this quilt remind you of the warmth of my love, the care of this faith community, and the comfort of the Holy Spirit.  And on those nights when I cannot wrap you in my arms, wrap yourself in this quilt and know that in God's family you are never alone.

Lars, Me, My Husband Bernie Behind Me, My Mother Beside Me

Then we exchange places and our kids give their parents this blessing:

You have given of your heart and of your home.  You have loved and cared for me, even when it was difficult.  Today I honor and thank you for your courage, patience, wisdom and love.  Wherever I go and whatever I do, I will always be your child, blessed by your love.  I thank God for blessing my life with you.

By now most of the women in the sanctuary are bawling and the men are pretending they have something stuck in their eye.

Then the quilts are folded up and the graduates and their parents go back to their seats for the remainder of the service.  Lars and his best friend, Ashton, also sang a duet during the worship service, which was really nice.  (The photo below was taken during rehearsal PRIOR to worship, when they were hamming it up -- they were much more serious during the worship service.  :-). Can you tell these boys are glad to be done with high school?!)

Lars and His Best Friend Singing a Duet, and Me Cracking Up In the Choir

Out in the Narthex or the Upper Commons or whatever they're calling it these days, tables were set up with a spot for displaying a trifold display board full of photos and memorabilia for each graduate along with their quilt and their Bibles, which were turned in to the church office two weeks ago so that each of our pastors could sign them.  I love this picture of my husband and my son together:

Bernie and Lars

And here's one of Dad, Lars, and "Mother," as Lars likes to call me:

Bernie, Lars and Me

And downstairs in the Lower Commons area they had a reception set up with refreshments.  I missed out on most of that and didn't even get to see anyone else's quilt up close because I was singing at both services and warming up with the choir between services while the reception was going on.  I'm glad that other people were taking so many great photos and sharing them with me!  Have I ever told you guys how much I love our church family at Christ Lutheran?!

My Graduation Quilt for Lars, 68 x 90 "Mission Impossible"

Finished With Only Five Days to Spare!

So now you all finally understand why I had a hard deadline for finishing this graduation quilt!! I would have wanted to send Lars off to college with a Mom-made quilt anyway, but I probably would have put it off, thinking I had PLENTY of time before he reports to campus in August...  Honestly, it's great to have this finished now and not have it hanging over me all summer, or worse -- have it be the high school graduation quilt that didn't get finished until he was through with college!!

And now, a Question...

I shared this quilt on Facebook and Instagram after finishing it, and a number of people have been requesting that I write up a pattern for Mission Impossible.  I've never done that before -- what do you guys think?  Is this just a nice thing people say when they find out you designed a quilt pattern yourself, or do you think anyone would actually want to buy the pattern if I put in the time to write up all of the instructions and put them, along with traditional templates and foundation paper piecing patterns, into a downloadable PDF format?  I will say that this is not a beginner friendly pattern because there are too many different techniques involved (foundation paper piecing, traditional cutting with templates, traditional curved piecing, and invisible machine applique piecing).  I'd probably consider this quilt appropriate for an Intermediate quilter.  I would include a pressing plan for the seam allowances and tips and tricks for getting those bulky seam intersections nice and flat where the four geese arcs converge.  I'd also include a color key for the Kona Solids that I used to get the 3-D effect (I did not use any gradient fabrics, just solids) and I suppose I'd have to include a few other size options and an alternate colorway. So, lots of work involved to do it right, but it WOULD be cool to see other quilters' interpretations of my design.  What do you think?  If any of you have any experience writing, publishing, or selling patterns, please share your feedback in the comments or email me directly.  

I'm linking up with:

-->

·      Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework http://quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.com
What I Made Monday at Pretty Piney Quilts

·      Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts http://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com 

·      Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts http://www.cookingupquilts.com/

·      Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt http://lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com/

·      Moving it Forward at Em’s Scrap Bag: http://emsscrapbag.blogspot.com.au/

·      BOMs Away at Katie Mae Quilts: https://www.katiemaequilts.com/blog/ 

·      Colour and Inspiration Tuesday at http://www.cleverchameleon.com.au

·       To-Do Tuesday at Stitch ALL the Things: http://stitchallthethings.com

Lars's New Quillow Plan: Can I Finish This In 9 Months If I Haven't Started It Yet?

New Plan for Lars's Quillow, 74 x 98

Reality check: Lars starts his senior year of high school this coming Monday.  We are just nine months away from his senior year Quillow Blessing at church.  In case you're not familiar with this tradition, the annual Quillow Service at Christ Lutheran is when the graduating seniors parade to the front of the church in their caps in gowns while their baby pictures are flashing on the screens and the choir sings bittersweet anthems about letting go and launching them into the Big, Scary World, trusting in God to protect them.  Then the parents wrap a special quilt around the shoulders of their son or daughter, specially made for the occasion (many families do a quilt that folds up into a pillow, hence the term "quillow"), the pastors say stuff that makes everyone cry, and we do a special blessing.  This is a day for waterproof mascara, for sure.

Lars-Of-Ours, My Rising Senior

So anyway, Lars is going to need a quilt for this, and it needs to be completely finished by the beginning of June.  He and I collaborated on a design for this quilt over a year ago in EQ8, and although I absolutely adore the design we came up with, I've decided it's not suitable for his quillow for a number of reasons.

My Original, Unrealistic Crazy Person Design

What are those reasons, you may ask?

1. I haven't started it yet, and do you see all those tiny pieces?  Let's be real, folks -- there is NO WAY I would get this finished on time.
2. Lars's "quillow" is going to be a bed quilt for his college dorm, not a pillow, so I need to think about what it will feel like to sleep beneath the quilt.  A quilt with a bazillion pieces is also a quilt with a bazillion heavy seam allowances.  So I do plan to make the original quilt eventually, but as a wall quilt rather than a bed quilt.
3. If I locked myself in my studio for the next 9 months, working nonstop with only peanuts and M&Ms to sustain me, and miraculously managed to finish this quilt on time...  Then what if something BAD happened to the quilt at college, like it was stolen or ruined in a laundry mishap or something was spilled all over it -- can you imagine how devastating that would be?  I need to design a quilt that I can make with a reasonable investment of time so that, in the unfortunate event it's lost/damaged/stolen, my son won't feel responsible for the loss of a family heirloom!
4. Again, although I love the stained glass inspired cross design on its own, the interior designer in me is thinking about how this bed quilt will fit into a typical college dorm room that my son will be sharing with a roommate.  These are small rooms that get cluttered up very quickly, and I think a simpler, more graphic/modern quilt design is more likely to look good in the room with whatever else he and his roommate have going on in there.

Lars, of course, is bummed that he isn't getting a giant stained glass window for his quillow quilt, and he reluctantly gave me two criteria for coming up with an alternative design:

He wants it to be purple.

He also wants it to be "Cooler than everyone else's, and not just because all the squares match up, either."  

Hah!  I said it's not a competition to see whose parents can come up with the best quilt, but then he explained that I have been making cool things his whole life and he wants his quilt to be something special that only his mom could make...  And how am I supposed to argue with that?  He has been sleeping under this quilt for the past 6 years, and my quiltmaking skills have improved quite a bit since I made that one for him.  

Lars's Current Bed Quilt, Made in 2012

So I'm going to translate "cooler than everyone else's" into "cooler than the last one you made me," because that's what I think he was really getting at. 

One of the things I love most about the cathedral window quilt design is that I based it off of a design that Lars created in an EQ Intermediate Piecing Design class we took with Barb Vlack back when Lars was 13 years old.  (Yes, EQ software really is so easy that a child can use it!)  Wanting my new quillow design to also be a collaboration between mother and son, I went back to that old EQ7 Project File from the 2014 class to see what else I could use as a starting point for the new design.  

Lars's EQ7 Design from 2014 Class

I like how this design incorporates curved piecing and is similar to the Drunkard's Path blocks I used in his previous quilt, but with the greater complexity and "cool factor" of the arcs of graduated flying geese.  Since I can print my foundation paper piecing patterns directly from EQ8, as well as templates for the curved background fabrics, it won't be difficult to piece accurately, either.  

So the first thing I did was to resize the quilt to a size appropriate for an XL Twin dormitory mattress, scaling the block size up to 12" for a bold, modern scale (reducing the number of pieces and seams is an added bonus).  Each circle is made up of four blocks, so those are 24" circles.  Then I offset the rows of circles to create a half drop pattern repeat.  

Is It Purple Enough? Is It Cool Enough?

Now, THAT is a quilt design that I am excited to turn into a real quilt!  I am not 100% sure what Lars has in mind for the color scheme beyond the Purple Imperative, so I created a few different color schemes for him to choose from.  I may even drag him off to the quilt shop with me to select the actual fabrics.  

Or Will He Prefer Purple with Red and Gray?

I know I want either solid fabrics or nearly-solid fabrics for this quilt, with a dark, saturated purple background.  I like the Modern/Amish vibe that gives me, and I feel like it keeps the quilt from looking too cutesy for a young man.  Of course, I've never been one to limit my sons' color choices to brown, navy or gray.

Or Purple With Royal Blue and Chartreuse?

The more I play with different colorways, the more I like this design.  

Or Purple With Light Blue and Red?

Wouldn't it be a cool fabric print for drapery panels, printed on linen with a 24" repeat?

If Quilters Designed Drapery Fabrics

Okay, so THAT was probably not the most productive use of my time today...  FYI, you can NOT do that with EQ8.  I exported the quilt rendering photo as a JPEG from EQ8 so I could share that with you here on my blog, and then I imported that quilt design image into a separate interior design software program and rescaled it so I could use it as if it was a drapery fabric...  I am proud of myself for stopping at that point, because I REALLY wanted to PhotoShop a lovely mountain view behind those windows, drape a snuggly throw across the arm of the sectional, and top it all off with a fabulous contemporary chandelier.  This is what RESTRAINT looks like.

And now, my lovelies, I'm signing off so I can wrap up some last minute errands and details for my younger son's birthday party that is happening this evening!  Son the Younger turned 15 recently and is about to begin his sophomore year of high school.  Which means I will have ANOTHER quillow quilt to design and create as soon as I finish Lars's!

Birthday Boy Anders, My Rising Sophomore

Anders is going through a phase where he thinks it's hysterically funny to cower in fear whenever Mom takes his picture.  Fun times!

I'll be linking today's post up with:

• ·       Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts http://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com  
• ·       Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt http://lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com/
• Esther's WIPs On Wednesday http://estheraliu.blogspot.com