absolutely gorgeous!!!!!

Lovely pictures. I have done a small-ish rag quilt using a fleece blanket for the backing and it gave me no trouble at all. This fleece which I am planning to use is thicker, but I have plenty of it and can practice (which I need to do anyway) before I put the actual quilt under the needle. Thanks so much, all of you.

Wendy,

That was the 1st thing I did freehand feathers on. They are NOT hard, but I did draw and doodle them before I started quilting them. The trick is to not put your elbow or wrist down while you draw. you are trying to teach your SHOULDER the muscle memory of drawing the feathers. My 1st feathers were NASTY! (can you say potato chips and hot dogs?? lolol) I still get some that are not nice, but I dare you to FIND them. I gave myself permission to practice. My dogs have some REALLy nicely quilted dog beds! I also had an haHA moment when I realized that feathers look like half hearts. I can DO hearts. That helped. I also like a DVD from the Pajama Quilter called 'Pajama Quilter Reloaded'. She is very encouraging for a new FMQuilter and breaks things down into try-able chunks. She also got me started doodling on a dry erase board. I even take a small one in the car if I'm trying out something new! My family already knew I was pretty crazy! have fun!

Have you used flannel backing on a baby quilt instead of fleece. How does it quilt and do you use batting.

I have used flannel backing with a high loft polyester batting, so quilt was lightweight but not flat. It turned out very well. I had critters machine embroidered ... 1 critter per block (25 blocks) and I machine stitched around them (not FMQ) right up against the embroidery thread. I had no problems and no puckering, front or back.

Question: Did you pin baste, sew baste or use basting spray
to keep the two layers together

I pinned a few places to keep it together and not shift on me, I didn't use as many pins on this one as I would of on a three layered quilt, this one actually was easier to keep together and handle. I plan to do a lot more this way