Progress is slowly being made on this beautiful Irish Chain. The large open centers are being basted as I complete the cross-hatching throughout.

Because the quilting is in every other chain, there are hundreds of starts and stops on this quilt. So I've been hiding them in the seams on the front as much as possible. And, I've been carefully starting and stopping with tiny stitches which sit in the exact holes of previous starts and stops. If that makes sense? Long story short: there will be no tying and burying on this quilt. Every start and stop has to be done as invisibly as possible, especially because the backing fabric is dark blue.

Here is how the cross-hatching in light blue thread is coming along. I'm using a 9 SPI for this 28 wt. cotton thread and it looks great.

And here is how the border looks with the cross-hatching continued through it. I'm glad I decided to use this instead of a separate border. The border is so thin that any design I put in there would've been either too heavy for the rest of the quilting, or it would've not been symmetrical on each side due to a variation of over 2 inches between all four borders. Also, the corners are mitered, which limited my quilting choices as well.

Each pass takes me about 45 minutes to complete, including basting. So for today I'm done and on to other duties.

My previous post about Plan A for this quilt has been scrapped. That happens a lot with me.

Plan B was implemented this morning, when I discovered that perfect off-white Aurifil 50 wt. cotton hiding in my sewing machine notions box, color #2021. It's not bright white, and it's not at all beige. It's something perfectly shimmery like ivory. And, now the cross-hatching in the quilt will be done with my favorite Aurifil blue #2770 in a 28 wt., with the same color in 40 wt. in the bobbin.

Not only did the thread for Plan A get scrapped, but much of the quilting design as well.

Plan B's quilting design now incorporates the small border around the quilt with the cross-hatching in the body of the quilt. As I began to chart out the cross-hatching this morning I remembered that my customer had said she wanted it in every other row, not every row. Thankfully I remembered that before I stitched it out!

The one scary element in Plan B is the half-circle in the border that sits above the pale blue areas. Which is difficult to see unless you zoom into the pictures. Something told me I needed to do a half-circle in the border there. Right now, my idea is that I'll make a feather motif using the half-circle. And something also tells me to continue the feather motif stencil that will be in those pale areas into the border as well. This means no stitch-in-the-ditch to separate the border from the body of the quilt.

So the only shred of Plan A left is the fact that I will still be using the stencil in my previous post, and each large pale blue area will still be stitched-in-the-ditch to outline it.

Time for my nap!

Next up for custom quilting is this Triple Irish Chain in varying shades of blue. My customer asked for a motif in the pale blue open areas, and just straight lines running down through each diagonal chain. I will also stitch-in-the-ditch around the pale blue open areas.

The motif I've chosen is a feathered wreath stencil #SCL-215-11 from The Stencil Company. The motif will be turned on-point to fit:

My customer prefers cotton threads. And she likes a very simple, traditional look on her quilts. However I wasn't able to match the off-white in the background of most of her fabrics. My Aurifil cotton thread is either too white or too beige. So I've decided to go with a perfect matching off-white So Fine polyester thread #401. It looks just like cotton when it's quilted, and it has such a nice sheen like Aurifil cotton. Also, the thinner So Fine thread will behave better doubled-up as backtracking.

So the look will be just what she likes, and the polyester thread choice will be forgiven when she sees the overall beauty of her finished masterpiece.

And speaking of masterpieces, I finally finished this masterpiece of diligence. The pantograph being so very dense made this project last exceptionally long. But every single pass I made brought me such joy! The design is so perfect and evenly-spaced throughout. And with the purple and pink variegated Rainbows thread it really made the quilt feel "girly". Which, of course, was my customer's one specific request.

And here is the back, which was a darling pink dotty flannel:

Meanwhile, my great-niece discovered my Pounce Pad. She pulled out a dormant fat quarter from my stash, located one stencil out of the hundreds I have, and jumped right into making this project to embroider with the new threads I recently gave her:

I can't wait to see the finished product!

Since I'm too sick to post anything of a creative sort, I want to share an example of repurposing metallic thread. Several spools of very pretty Kaleidoscope metallics by YLI were headed for the thrift shop, until my great-niece arrived last weekend.

And she knew just what to do with all that shiny thread...

So even though my Gammill Classic Plus did not like these threads, they kept a 13-year old happy for hours.

Today is a working sick day. I'm still plugging away on this beautiful purple and pink quilt with a very enjoyable pantograph. It's very dense, I've discovered, so I'll be taking naps in between rows!

Thankfully, today my quilting student is out of town and we won't be doing our Log Cabin class. I will miss her enthusiasm for piecing today. But my swollen throat will thank me later for not having to talk so much.

Last week she finished her 2nd Light and 2nd Dark. I, however, was only able to get half of my 2nd Light finished and no 2nd Dark at all. It was a sacrifice I was ready to make so that she could use my wonderfully smooth Husqvarna 545 Lily sewing machine instead of her noisy, jumpy Brother sewing machine from Walmart. The look on her face was pure joy as she pulled her strips through my machine like butter. Her quarter-inch seam improved, and all was right with the world.

Since I couldn't sew I had to do something constructive. So I helped her with trimming and pressing her blocks after each strip was attached, making sure I saved enough for her to do so she could learn good habits. And, I took the opportunity of introducing her to another necessary rite of quilting: watching sappy romantic comedies that you've already seen dozens of times. She chose "Did You Hear About The Morgans?", which was hilarious because of where we live. Our town is actually smaller and more remote than the "small" town depicted in the movie. We could relate to the pick-up truck stereotypes.

To make a long story short, I didn't get pictures of my student's block progress from last week but here is a picture of what I was able to accomplish with my own blocks:

I love the fabrics. They've been sitting on my fabric shelves for years now. Before my student comes next Tuesday, I want to have my blocks completed.

That way, she can use my $1400 sewing machine. And I can watch a another movie...

This is a close-up shot of how King Tut's #994 "Karnak" variegated cotton thread moved across all of the colors in yesterday's quilt. I loved the turquoise and brown combination in the fabric and in the thread!

Today's job is a dense pantograph on a very pretty purple and pink quilt. The backing is pale pink dotty flannel. My customer's only request was that the quilting design be "girly". So I chose "Rainbow Flight" by Miki & Diane Designs. It's 13 inches of girly feathers and rainbows that undulate across the quilt top.

I'm using Rainbows variegated poly thread #818 "Wedding Bells", which is a subtle mix of pinks and lavenders. In the bobbin I'm using Aurifil 40 wt. cotton in color #2515 which is a perfect match.

Since the quilting design is dense, I'm using a nice, flat 100% cotton batting to make sure this quilt doesn't become too stiff.

It's a large quilt, which means it won't be finished today. But it's worth having it on the machine for a few days to see the design take shape.