The two quilt tops I finished last month are back from the quilter already!  I’ve used the same quilter for a long time because she does wonderful work.  I choose panto designs rather than custom quilting, in part because of the great variety of designs of available and in part because it is so much more affordable.

Panto design of circles on a block from my modern sampler

Just look at these cute circles on the Modern Sampler Quilt:  Yes, that is an edge-to-edge panto design!  I have done those doggone circles on my domestic sewing machine, and they were a PAIN.  I am so thrilled to have someone do them for me at a reasonable cost!

Another block from my modern sampler showing all those circles in the panto design

Here are some close-ups of the quilting on the batik block-swap quilt.  I love the choice of thread color as well as the design.  It enhances the overall quilt!

Now I’ll just get these bound and ready to go!

Here’s one more reason I choose panto quilting.  I asked for a choppy quilting design to go with the chopped-up blocks in this quilt and got just what I wanted!

Panto quilt design on one of my improvised quilts

I do quilt my own quilts on my domestic sewing machine, both free-motion and with the walking foot.

Here’s some free motion quilting I did years before I tried the stitch regulator

Here’s some sort-of straight line quilting I did freehand

I did this with the walking foot without marking

It’s not my favorite thing to do, but if I need a quilt done a certain way or in a hurry, I do it.  Alas, I have not found the stitch regulator as useful as I expected. (You can read my review here.)  I do enjoy all the things I can do with the walking foot!

Here are some variably-spaced lines I did with the walking foot

Here’s something I quilted by hand “back in the day”.  It’s been around a while.

Update on KonMari in the Studio:

It took an entire week to go through all my fabric and then get it put away, but it was worth it.  I had a great “ahhh…” feeling when it was all done.  My studio is much neater and I know what I have.

One thing I learned is that almost any fabric brings me joy!  Probably why I’m a quilter.  So there wasn’t much fabric to get rid of.  I DID get rid of a bunch of scrap collections I was “saving”.  I cut my scrap fabric in strips of pre-determined width and store it by strip size so that I can find what I want easily.  However, I had several collections of tiny pieces too small to cut into strips.  I know some people just love those and do lots of things with them, but it’s not for me!  So out they went.

My next project is the donation quilt for the Quilt Alliance’s 2016 Contest, so the next step in KonMari will have to wait until that is done.  You should consider entering, too!  Entries are only 16 inches square, so it’s not a huge commitment.  Check it out here.