Applause for your friend's return to quilting. Please tell her how happy we are to have her back and how much her talent means for us as quilters as well as the folks who keep and use her quilts.
Keep working on the free motion quilting idea. Excelsior! I just sew up a number of "test blocks" of different sorts. My thought is pads of all sorts: for sweaty glasses, for large mug rugs, for plants on wooden and glasss tables, .... You get the idea. I got started on the use for tests when I inherited a nicely presented and finished pile as a Christmas gift from a friend.
The really large test block is still on my ironing board. Made fabric pleases me. It's good for my soul when I want to sew and not particularly think about the technicalities of sewing. What I am looking at is strip after thin strip of left over Halloween fabric that I sewed together, end to end, cut in half, sewed together again and again until I got a large enough piece of fabric to do something with. Now what to do is the question. If the two of you or any other creative person out there has a wonderful idea, I'd be delighted to know. Halloween is coming and I've been dithering for a good month. My machine is much smarter than I am and has been strongly suggesting that I do an applique of some sort and add some sort of embroidery and call the production part of a Halloween centerpiece for the table that has effectively eaten our great room. Huge. Oh, and suggestions as to how to machine quilt the thing.
See what I mean about quilters sharing talents? I am a technician, not an artist. I need every bit of help I can recruit and am delighted to follow instructions.
Thanks,
Alvie