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!