Falling for Fall and Nano Poblano

I am one of those rare people who decorate for Thanksgiving though not quite as involved as the other holiday months. Let's give November its due! Allow me to introduce the Falling for Fall quilted wall hanging. This is one half of the project I have completed free motion quilting the center panel with appliques. I will move from the center outward stitching down the leaves and flowers in the black print panels and update this post with the final result.

After finishing up a gift quilt for my brother, I was itching to start on something new. I scrounged through my fabric stash and found two stunning panels (a little piecing done to bring them to the same size), a Calico Craze Moda charm pack and panel of previously joined solid squares, all thrifted remnants. This is my first attempt at a large stippling stitch. I continue to have issues with inexpensive Brother quilting machine. I hope to upgrade soon to an industrial machine courtesy of Christmas present from Mr. VZ. My issues with the Brother machine CS6000i include a throat space that is too small, occasional irregular straight stitches, decorative stitches going wonky for no reason, and total and complete lockup when I've been free motion quilting over long periods of time. For the price of around $150, this machine was a perfect re-entry into sewing/quilting.

Completed lap quilt for my brother

I tried to talk myself into making conventional quilt blocks using a template from the BH&G book of 101 full-size quilt blocks and borders but I couldn't figure out how to translate the template to the usable paper sheets. I may need to take a class on that procedure.

There was a thrift shop commando break in the quilting action. I made it to hospice thrift with a mere 15 minutes left prior to closing. It was well worth the effort with a score for less than $8 of a black and white maxi skirt, a quilt book on Basic Seminole Patchwork, and fabric remnants. Part of those remnants were precuts to assemble bow tie blocks - sweeeet! Thank you, mystery quilter.

As is my practice, I include fabric remnants from my thrift shop finds into my latest creative effort. One of the remnants labeled Country Manor flowers became highlighted appliques that meshed perfectly with the Moda charm pack.

All that work on my latest seasonal quilt spooky-steampunk-lap-quilt paid off in many page views and Google +1s (64 as of this post - woot woot!). 

Linking up with Lorna with Let's Be Social #149~ at sewfreshquilts.blogspot.com

And Leanne at shecanquilt for Scraptastic Tuesday



And now we are in November! I kicked around the idea of doing another Instagram challenge but then I bumped into Nano Poblano (National Blog Posting Month). There are prompt ideas posted on host's website I will include in my posts. Joining the group at cheerpeppers.wordpress.com for a no rules, no theme free fall celebrating National Blog Posting Month.