Quilting The Beast…

Yes,  I finally started quilting the dragon hexie quilt that I’ve been working on all last year! I’ve been quite anxious about it, especially since I quilt on my domestic Singer machine… it’s hard to maneuver the quilt in the machine to make smooth lines in my free motion quilting. 

So, I started with the border:

Straight-line quilting with the walking foot, super happy with how it came out… I even added another two red lines of quilting in the red stripe to make it stand down from the brown. 

Then I started quilting a wood-grain pattern in the background.  I was using the same brown thread I used on the border… and had to take it out, it was just too dark.  Got new thread yesterday, a lighter more golden brown which goes with more of the background fabrics:

With the new thread I sat for a full day before starting.  I was/am a little scared… but like my hubby keeps telling me:  “don’t worry at all, it’s a ‘Gail Quilt’ so anything you do will be perfect.”  I love that guy!!  So I jumped in yesterday and here is what it’s looking like:

I’m tightly quilting the wood grain background so that the dragon pops up off the brown, it’s going to look great ~ the quilting is FAR from perfect.  I keep breaking thread and having to start over… but I’m happy with it so far. 

So… Happy New Year to all you awesome quilters!!  Here’s to a new year full of goodness, friends and awesome quilts!