Decisions, decisions...

I think the hardest part of the quilting process for me is deciding how to quilt a quilt!  That's why it takes me so long to finish!  (Well, that and basting...).   I've been debating how to quilt my twin rainbow quilts.  Ever since I finished my Free Motion Quilt Along, I have wanted to actually incorporate some of the designs in a real quilt!  Look, I even came up with this:

I tried about half a block, using my white thread, and it looked terrible!  I should have taken a picture.  The white thread just stands out way to much on the solid colors.  I never really anticipated the solids to be a problem.  I have a few colored threads, but I REALLY don't want to have to switch thread colors every 3 minutes, plus most of them don't match too well.
SO.  I had this great idea to try rainbow colored variegated thread.  I must have bought the wrong kind, because it was having ALL KINDS of issues in my machine.  Finally I relented and decided this thread will have to be for hand sewing ONLY.
I even tried hand quilting a few blocks:

This took FOREVER!  I'm just not that patient - plus, I REALLY don't have the right tools to hand quilt.  I suppose I could do it if I really liked the way it looks... But I'm not completely sold.  I feel like such a pessimist!
I think what I will do is get my white thread out and just do an overall meandering pattern that won't detract so much from the solid colors.  Maybe I could throw in a few stars or loops.  I can do a fancy pattern on some other quilt...

On another note, I made my first pieced backs!  I was very much set on using fabric I had ON HAND for these quilts.  I didn't have much white left, so I supplemented with the cheapo fabric I used to make my classroom's chair pockets several years ago.  This stuff has gone a long way for me!  It was kind of fun to work on the backs.  It was a good chance for me to experiment.  The whole thing was pretty improv.  I just kept adding more until I filled the space that I needed to fill.
The pictures might look a little funny - I laid them on top of my quilt tops to make sure they were bit enough.  I kinda like them!

Some of my current favorite fabrics...

I've been playing with different ideas for baby items lately.  I have so many favorite fabrics right now!  Mostly anything by Anne Kelle:

 I just LOVE these little cars/planes/trains/helicopters!

And these are my favorite animal prints:

Also, "All Star 2 from My Minds Eye":

Here are a bunch of other cute things I found:

Have you guessed yet?  Yep - the doctor thinks we are having two BOYS!  It's still pretty early, but my doctor seemed pretty confident.  I'm excited to start making things with boy fabric!  Yay!

Twin Rainbow Quilt Tops Finished

I finished my two quilt tops today!  I took some advice from a couple commenters and mixed the blocks up a little bit.  After a couple days of playing around with them, this is the arrangement I decided on.  I am just now realizing that the second quilt has a lot more green in it than the other.  Ah well.  I still like the way they turned out.

I took a bunch of pictures but wasn't quite satisfied with any of them, so I finally got the nerve to venture outside and take pictures.  I know it looks better to take pictures of things outside, but my house is kind of on a main road and our neighbors are always playing outside.  Plus, today is my day off so I don't exactly look my best.  But I did it anyway - I went into the backyard where the grass is really ugly, but at least no one could see me.  It made me kind of nervous setting my beautiful little quilts on the dirty ground, but they survived and I think the pictures show off the colors very nicely.  I guess I can do it again in the future...

Now I am going to let them sit for a bit while we go on vacation (YAY!!!), then I will come home and figure out how to quilt them.  

I'm already planning a bigger quilt using the "out-of-the-box" pattern.  I got the fabric yesterday!  I had to work a little to convince Hubby to let me buy it, but in the end - he was the one who helped pick it out!   It's from Kate Spain's Fandango line.  I LOVE it!  Isn't it pretty?  This is the first time I have actually purchased designer fabric (as in - not from Joanns).  But I think it will be worth it since this quilt is going to be for two VERY special people!

Oh yeah!  I almost forgot to tell you!  I was featured on "My Domestic Design" today.  Wahoo!  And just for fun, I'm linking up again...  Thanks Becky!