Progress

I am working away on my Robert Kaufmann Fabric stacks quilt...still have not come up with a sensible name for that.

Initially I was going to do some feathers in the borders, however changed my mind on that after seeing a You Tube video on using part of a pantograph...watching a lot of videos at the moment as I am researching the Sweet 16. Very conflicted about the Sweet 16 as I do love FMQ on my machine, however I am also thinking something with more height would be helpful. For the time being, I will just do my research and probably go for a bit of an extended test drive at a dealer over the next few months.

Anyway, after watching this video I remembered one of the many resources that I actually have not used yet at all..."Follow the Line, Quilting Designs by Mary Covey". Got it out and found a design I liked

Thought that a more open design would suit my quilt a bit better given that I kept the center pretty low key in terms of quilting. A more dense feather border may have been awkward (and I really felt like doing something different). So I marked my border

This time I used a slither of soap to mark the lines...I find that the Sew Line chalk pencil's white line is sometimes really hard to get out of the darker fabric. The soap worked like a dream and is a good alternative if you don't need to be overly precise.
I then used my trusted Golden Threads paper to trace the design. Once traced I took it to the machine and stitched through it without any thread to create my stencil

I always used a few sheets of Golden Threads paper to do this, so that I have extra copies in case I damage the first one...
Marked it onto the fabric with the quilt pounce...bad photo, but you get the general idea

I always mark the borders in sections, i.e. one border at the time as working with the Quilt Pounce becomes tricky in terms of wiping out your lines as you go along, particularly when you are wearing the Machinger gloves. I keep the white Sew Line marker at the machine and when I see that some lines are getting too faint, I go over them again with the pen so I don't loose them altogether. In terms of following the lines, I keep it pretty relaxed...this is more about the texture and overall consistency. Similarly, fitting the design into the border is a bit of hit and miss with me...I know there is a more structured approach to this where you can work out how to reduce the overall pattern, but I just wing it!

and here it is stitched out

Very happy with this...I am using a brown Aurifil 50/2 thread which blends right in. This is what I wanted for this quilt...a little bit of something, a bit of texture, but really, the fabric and design make this quilt for me.
And to be honest...I need to finish some stuff. I got another 2 finished quilts lying around, another one in production and I am itching to get back to FMQ  a few more Wholecloth quilts.

Karin