At Last, Another Quilt Quilted

Where did March go?
I finished quilting this today, but that's about all I have to show for the month!

 This is one of Ruth's half square triangle quilts.

 I tried something new for me.  I treated the four adjoining white half square triangles as if they were a solid block and quilted a wreath of hook feathers.  Last night I watched the hook feather tutorial by Lisa Calle.  You can find it here in her free video tutorials.

 For a little relief from the feathers, I quilted swags along the inner borders,


 but I quilted more feathers in the sashing between blocks.

The colored half square triangles were filled with variations on another design that I think it's fun to quilt.
The pretty floral border got a scrolly interlacing feather that doesn't show up well either in person or in photos--but it was good practice, and I like knowing it's there.

I really enjoyed watching Lisa's videos and listening to what she has to say about learning to quilt on a domestic sewing machine rather than a long arm.  My mind doesn't see much difference between long arm quilting and domestic machine quilting, because what my mind thinks about is the the needle going up and down and catching the thread and moving to the next stitch.  Therefore, with a sit down machine, I think the challenge is with having to move a big quilt through the machine and making sure it is supported for the greatest ease.  I'm thinking the challenge with a long-arm quilting machine is more in becoming familiar with the machine.  I do think using a ruler platform and rulers is probably easier on a long arm.  Of course, the challenge of a long arm is affording it and having adequate space for the frame, but for some people those aren't challenging.

I did link to Lizzie Lenard's Free Motion Mavericks.

My school is on break for the next week, so despite a whole lot of other things I need to do or catch up on, I do hope to get more quilting done.  It's lovely to have a creative activity that makes my heart sing!

Happy quiltmaking...and knitting,