Succumbed!

Pillow Panel includes 2 of these printed squares

If you've been paying attention, you know I've become a real fan of Angela Walters and how she presents machine quilting techniques and designs per her many videos and challenges. These are all free, but she is quite candid about the fact that she can only do that through the support of at least some viewers purchasing the panels she designs for the challenges as well as coordinating fabric lines and thread collections. Generally speaking, I haven't been that drawn to her designs and certainly have plenty of thread on hand so am not tempted to participate in the challenges by practicing the quilting on her products. However . . . there's a new challenge starting in about a week called Free Motion Fillers Quilt Along which will present a LOT of different designs, and her thought when designing the panel was that when finished it could make for a handy reference when sitting down to quilt other quilts. Ahhh, that rather hooked me, along with the fact that I kinda liked the design which was done up in colors I like AND I didn't have to buy a big panel (a little pricey) but could opt for the pillow panel (which appealed more for several reasons). "Oh, I can't believe I'm ordering it," I thought to myself as I added the pillow panel to the cart, and then added one of the coordinating prints. I can come up with several rationalizations, but I needn't tell YOU about that, I'm sure! The panel and extra fabric arrived yesterday, and I am just as thrilled with them as I was when I saw them on her website. Anyone want to join me?

In the meantime, I have found my curved scissors. I swear I had looked in that spot on the shelf surround of my machine more than once. I can't even remember what I moved from that spot in preparation for the next step on the Peace quilt. When I turned back, there they sat and I swear they were smirking. Glad to have found them because the applique pieces of the second Peace quilt have been arranged and permanently fused, ready for satin stitching around their edges and I prefer using them for thread snipping over a regular pair of snips. 

While so much of my memory seems to be failing me lately, I was very happy to find it had not failed me about a certain thread I was sure I had that would be a good color for the satin stitching. I still had the sample I'd stitched out when deciding on thread color, width and tension for stitching on the first Peace quilt so I didn't have to rely on my memory for test settings. I did change one setting but at least I had a starting point. What I wasn't sure about was whether I'd put any stabilizer on the reverse side of the quilt top or if the Misty Fuse adhered to the applique provided enough stabilization. This is one of the reason I like the way I blog, because I could go back to the posts about that part of working on Peace I to see how I had done it. Yeah!  No stabilizer. Ready to sit at the machine and work my way around all those raw edges that Misty Fuse does not hold in check. The upper thread matches the tan in the print along the side and is the no longer being made Sulky Ultra Twist. The lower thread is more yellow and will be backup if I run out of the other thread. It is the replacement Twist thread produced by the company that bought out the original. It's close but just not the same.