Unstitching Stippling and a Little Quilt

Ugh. I had planned out what I thought was the best quilting design for the borders on Folk Art Finery - I practiced and test sewed on scraps and it looked great. Only problem was I didn't account for the fact that monofilament thread on black just sinks right into the fabric and the result was very blah, especially that there was a lot of work involved that just didn't show up properly. This meant a lot of ripping out of stippling - this has got to be the worst job - two days where I spent any and all quilting time just picking picking picking. Here's a pic of a part of the section which is about 3" x 7" - of course, with the flash the stitching shows up nicely, if only it showed up as nicely in all lights.

After that, I just needed to take a break from quilting that Folk Art Finery. Luckily my sister gave me the perfect excuse by sending me her address to her new home that she's moving to next week - which meant I could do up a little quilt to send off to her as a house warming gift. I used baltimore album style redwork designs in the block centres, and I think I'll include a note that explains some of their symbolism which would relate to a new home.

Now that I'm looking at this quilt top this morning (oops! my pic cut off the bottom border), I wondering if its too much green and red, and too Christmas-y. But yesterday, I was doing a happy dance that I was able to find just the right colours in my stash. I'm going to go ahead an quilt it quick - just a large meander stitch everywhere - and get it in the mail for her.