Eureka!

This is a pattern called Eureka put out by Maple Island.  It has you cut your curves without measuring or a ruler- just your rotary cutter. It is kind of liberating. I have made this pattern twice ( following the pattern exactly in Black and white and red)

But my daughter thought it would be a nifty addition to her room in black and white and GREEN and oh could I maybe make it a little bigger? Kids are so great at helping us keep busy aren't they?

 She was right of course it looks fabulous in her room.

I thought since this was a quilt for our house I would take advantage of the opportunity to practice some of my quilting skills that are needing some fine tuning. I have a list of things I am anxious to master (feathers, pebbles, sharp points, echoing tears etc...). Feathers of course are very important in quilting and I am far from mastering them but, I realize I will never improve without practice.

 I also did some different fillers and textures so experiment and see what I could do now that I have had quite a few hours on the machine.

 I found I need to work on the backtracking portion of the feathers. This caused a lot of frustration but I did see some improvement. It will be worth it when I have more options to put on quilts.

 The back:

It was encouraging to compare this practice quilt with an earlier one I had done and see some progress. Much smoother in my large motions and more able to stay within a shape.  The first few times on the longarm reminded me of my first time behind the wheel learning to drive.  I thought it was hard to stay within my lane (until my mom said to look ahead down the road instead of down at the hood).   On the longarm, trying to stay within the part of the block I was trying to quilt was tough at first, no guardrails to keep me on the road!  Experience, practice and getting a feel for things has helped.  
It is really fun seeing my skills starting to catch up with my ideas. Endless possibilities!