Applique quilt

I managed to put the top together last night

and have spent this afternoon quilting it with a buttonhole stitch - all around each element.

I wish my sewing machine did reverse buttonhole stitch - it would have made a much smoother crossover of the curves. Also I wish it had a dial to lower the length of the buttonhole stitch. Near the ends of the flower petals and the ribbons I had to stop and punch in a lower stitch and then once around the point, I had to lengthen it again. 

All the quilting is now done, except the background. Sue Pelland suggests using the templates to create a wavy form of cross hatching in the background and I am considering that. I think I will definitely quilt the inside of the circles in a cross hatch by hand.  I found a wonderful varigated rayon thread in blues and pinks in my stash and used that for the quilting, with a pale blue bottom line thread in the bobbin.

I don't think I have ever managed to get this far with a quilt in under two days so it will go some way to using up fabric this month. I already have some more shapes cut from the floral fabric and think I am going to start a box of bonded shapes which will be ready to go when I do the next quilt.  I am not sure that I ironed the misty fuse enough - those of you in America have obviously been using this for some considerable while but it is not that common over here in the UK.  Next time I want to do more decorative stitching on the petals before assembling the quilt - Patsy Thompson does some wonderful examples in her work. Don't think I will ever get as good as her but it is worth a try.

Now off to sew in all the end threads.