LAL#6: The One Where the Dog Ate My Blog Post

No, I haven't quilted anything since last week, but LOOK AT THE PUPPY! 😍

No, Sam didn't REALLY eat my blog post. I'm just using cute puppy pictures to (hopefully) distract you from what a bad example I'm setting, hosting a linky party that's supposed to be about spending some time each week experimenting, learning, or practicing machine quilting, and here I have nothing to show for myself. In my defense, I have been throwing that orange ball around the back yard A LOT, and having to fetch it out of the neighbors' yard more often than I would care to admit because I have no aim whatsoever and I keep throwing the ball over the fence...

It's not the puppy's fault at all. I just spent more of my time piecing and following new design ideas down rabbit holes rather than quilting last week. I've finished all of the curved piecing my Modern Baby Clam Shells quilt top and am currently adding borders and trying to decide what to do about the backing fabric being smaller than I thought it was (I stopped to write this post when I realized tomorrow is Tuesday again) while I wait for the butterfly print fabric to come in the mail.

I picked my thread color for the outreach veteran's quilt, wound a couple of bobbins, threaded the machine, and swapped out my ruler foot for my new scoop foot. Then I gave the hook race a nice cleaning and oiling and got the pantograph set up for quilting. SURELY I'll get it quilted by next Tuesday!

Last week, I especially enjoyed Andree's Pinwheels and Stars free motion quilting progress:

I also admired Chris's curved crosshatching and perfectly round quilted circles on this table topper:

This makes me want to get my rulers out again and do some custom quilting, but I have to work through my backlog first. Veteran's quilt, clam shell quilt, and baby quilt not yet started, all needing edge to edge pantograph quilting, and THEN I can explore some more custom quilting!