Good Afternoon All,

As promised, here is another finished piece. If you click on any of the images you will be able to see them larger. I'm having so much fun exploring free style machine quilting as design motifs/focal points rather than as the artistry added to finish something else.

If you've heard of Zen Tangles, these might remind you of them though I really don't use many of the movements shown in Zen Tangles. Rather, I use combinations of the stitch outs that I've been using in my free style machine quilting for years including many of the designs that I've shared with you here on my blog.

No, not all of them are original to me, in fact lots of them I've picked up from other quilts, textures, doodles and drawings that I've seen along the way. What is unique is how I'm trying to use them.

The quilt is about 16" wide by 46" long. Each of the white blocks was quilted individually with two layers of batting and a backing. I stitched them on plain, white canvas that I had ripped so that the edges are rough. I then layered up the background fabric with two more layers of batting and a backing. I cut 3 squares of red shot cotton backed with Misty fuse. These squares were about 1 1/2" larger all the way around than the quilted white squares. I positioned the red squares on the black silk background fabric and ironed them in place. Then I quilted the inner part of the red squares, where the white quilted squares would eventually be, with a large stipple and the outer 1 1/2" of the red squares with a linear design. Next I quilted the hell out of the black silk fabric which would eventually become the borders and sashing between the quilted white squares. The black silk is quilted with more than a dozen different stitch outs.

Once the black/red block background was quilted then I positioned the white quilted squares in the centers of each of the red blocks and stitched them in place. As you look at each of the blocks above, notice how I mix curve based designs with straight line based designs, sort of alternating them whenever possible. This juxtaposition of straight versus curvy adds contrast within the single color thread design.

This is just about the most fun I've ever had with a sewing machine!

More soon,
Heather