Throw Pillow Three

The throw pillow kick continues.  Added bonus: more freemotion quilting practice.  I tried a big loopy pattern on the Anita's Arrowheads side.  It was my first time tracing a pattern - it was the only way to keep it fairly uniform.  As it was, my lines still wavered a bit.  I also discovered the green ceramic pencil doesn't rub off as easily as I thought it would, so there's a few spots I can still faintly see the lines.  The design shows up best on the back. 



I began quilting with some heavier pink thread I bought for the dress wall hangings.  My sewing machine had been giving me problems back then, but this time around I confirmed - my machine hates any heavier weight thread.  I couldn't set a tension that would properly lock the stitch that didn't shred the thread or snarl the bobbin.  I swapped to my normal thread and everything runs fine.

The Matrix side looks better with the quilting.  I tried to freemotion the original maze pattern, but I hated how the corners weren't sharp.  I ended up ripping that out and restitched with my walking foot.  Much better.

I still wanted to do some freemotion quilting.  I used a light blue thread, so it would show up faintly against the white and quilted a loopy, boxy pattern in half the maze.  Whenever I stipple I tend to do a small pattern.  The same started to happen with this pattern as well.  As I stitched I had to keep repeating to myself:  white space is good.  It was the only way to stop making teeny-tiny boxes.

I practiced making square corners with the loopy boxes.  Yay!  It was much easier to forgive round corners and squiggly lines when they get lost in the overall pattern.  I had no idea it would take so long.  I lost most of my Sunday afternoon working on this.  The end result is pretty cool!

I bound the pillow - I felt the two sides needed to be cleanly separated.  I picked the Arrowhead's colors and the Matrix's neutrals for the binding.  I think it works well for both sides.

Joining the Linky party at Freemotion by the River.