Finished in the nick of time!  Alicia is back at school with her quilt.  It’s quilted with a Minkee back for super cuddliness, and a high loft poly batting for extra puffiness.

Alicia asked for a loopy design as the quilting pattern.  I had her draw it with marker on newsprint for me because a picture is worth a 1000 words. Her idea of loopy might have been different from mine.

Someone told me that doodling on newsprint with a marker without picking it up would help me with continuous line quilting and indeed it did.  The newsprint simulates the “noise” that patterned and pieced fabric adds to the surface, and drawing continuously and doodling like this has helped me see how to move from one area to the next on complicated patterns.    I’ve filled pages of newsprint with doodling.  Using a super juicy marker that leaches ink when you hold it in one area too long helps see where things aren’t moving too.   If I doodle a pattern where I’m stuck often, I won’t quilt it until I get smoother at drawing it.  If I can’t do it smoothly in pen, I certainly can’t do it with a machine, thread, hopping foot and needle!