Channeling my inner Jenny - finish Friday

OK, so you already saw this quilt, but I was able to get some better pictures of it in the morning light after dropping the kids off at school.

As you can see, I was really trying to channel my inner Jenny Pedigo (from Sew Kind of Wonderful).  She does the most amazing things with little squiggles, and pebbles.  I love to see what she quilts each week.

Honestly though, when I looked at my little flimsy and began to ponder quilting it  All I could see was that white space.  I couldn't get it out of my head, so instead of quilting an all over design, I went with my first thoughts.  None of the colored fabric is quilted (at least not intentionally, I do still wiggle a bit on the seam lines).

And look!  I even tried some more of the dreaded feathers!  I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I wouldn't have even attempted to do them if it hadn't been for Patsy Thompson's lesson as part of the December Free Motion Challenge at Sew Cal Gal.  Most of the links for the tutorials are still active.  If improving your FMQ is on your "to do" list for 2013, those tutorials are a perfect place to start (and FREE!).

The How Far Will You Go? QAL was such a great experience.  I really want to thank Jess and Jess.  They  really did a fabulous job putting it together.  I really enjoyed the variety of blocks - unlike the endless HST blocks in the "other" QAL I was doing simultaneously.  And I thought the whole thing was very well run - a block every week, plenty of time in the end to get it together (even a procrastinator like me).  I know I will be revisiting some of their block tutorials in the future.

I also really appreciated that they allowed for multiple sized projects to participate at the end.  That is really thoughtful!  Last year was my first on the quilting web and I participated in a few other QALs and some were all or nothing at the end.  I could have made a set of coasters from the 5 inch blocks I had left over, and could have linked them up!  That is nice, and goes a long way to take the pressure off participating.  This is after all, supposed to be about having fun, right?

On a different note, it has been so crazy around here that I'm not sure I even mentioned Road to California is next week!  Last year I was literally counting down the days for this little "Mom-cation" of mine.  While I am super excited about it, this year I've almost let the whole thing sneak up on me because my focus has been elsewhere.  Now that I am in the final stretch, I really can't wait.

The classes I selected this year aren't particularly awe-inspiring, but I know I will learn something and I know  it will be lots of fun.  I get to hang out with one of my quilty friends and I'm even meeting up with Esther from Threads on the Floor.  I know we will have a great time.  I also hope to get loads of pictures for Inspirational Sunday posts, so you can feel like you got to go to the show too.

Thanks for reading,

Jen

Linking up with TGIFF and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?