That is always my question too - what color thread do I quilt with. I just finished a Quilt of Valor and will be quilting it with white variegated thread. Only trouble is I bought red for the backing! What was I thinking. I'm certainly not good enough to have the quilting show that much on the back. Been thinking of using red for the bobbin. May have to try a sample to see how it might look.

What about a curved line crossing over every say, second seam line on the horizontal - much more forgiving than stitch in the ditch and would give it a nice 'flow'. Then you could work out the distance on the vertical, finishing with a curvy line or two on all sides of the border?

I recently quilted a similar one and instead of SID I did wavy lines down the middle of each strip. Very quick and easy. Did not try to keep them even or symmetrical.

That sounds cool, think we will try that. :)

Aaaaaah!!!! I'm scared to start quilting! I was practing yesterday on some scrap and ugh, what a mess. I was using the walking foot. Watched some videos this morning and I've decided I'm going to practice using my embroidery foot. Seems to me that's what most people are using in the videos (some kind of embroidery like foot). (Darning foot).

I saw someone do this little loopydeloop design where she would add some hearts or some flowers and I think I'm going to practice that today. I know I'm going to have to just jump in there and do it some time soon...but, for now, I've got my little practice rectangle to work on. (Which my daughter says is a perfect size for our dog Hunter to use as a little blankie, so yesterday I stitched an "H" for Hunter in there for him lol). BUT, he's just a puppy and he's going to be big, so this blankie won't last long. Good thing too, cause it's UGLY!!!!

Very pretty. It will look great.

Ha! I made a mess of it. It was sooooo much harder than I thought it would be. Scratch that, I knew it would be hard, I just didn't realize HOW hard!!! I had to walk away. My lesson: I am not doing free motion quilting on my other two works in progress!!! Working with a large blanket is very different from practice blocks.

The problem with doing contrasting threads for top and bottom is that if you tension is off even a little then it might show thru where you don't want it. I'd do a very dark red, burgandy or dark wine, something that will pop on the top but so dark you won't notice it on the back as much. Then you can use the same thread on top and bottom.

You have rows of blocks so how about going to Joanns or a store and getting stencils that will fit in each row, you can draw them on with a water soluable pen and then you can just sew using a reqular foot; no FMQ needed. I've done this on quilts and it turns out great. Lots of designs to chose from.

Yes!! That was the first thing I noticed. Black and white is too contrasting for a novice. :(