The quilt is beautiful!!!

Another thought, you can use your walking foot to do a simple outline of an owl in each block, after you SID around the outside of each block. But you will need to stop every 2-3 stitches to re-align your stitching to the curves. It sounds tedious but I have certainly done it in the past and it works well - your feed dogs are up - try it on a sample first. Here is a colouring page you could simplify one of these outlines. http://www.coloring.ws/owl.htm

KIMMERS14---I'm with you. I love making the quilt top. but when it comes to quilting it, I freeze. I've done some FMQ, but I'm not real happy with it. Done it on simple things, and it's turned out okay, but I'm terrified to try it on a quilt that will be given as a gift. I feel your pain! I guess it's what everyone says---practice, practice, practice. Good luck!

If you want to quilt owls on the quilt, why not just turn your fabric sandwich over and outline your owls on the backing? Personally, I think the owls would get lost in the blocks of the top. This pattern would really look good done SID or X or some other straight line quilting. When the top is colorful like yours, you really don't see the quilting. I would use a light pink thread top and bobbin and I really think that would look great on both sides.

I think SID would look fine on both sides of your quilt...as would the X across. A light pink would look good as top and bottom thread. The stitching on the back will hardly show up anyway.

Beautiful quilt!

Dina

What kind of machine do you have that you can't find a FM foot? Most machines are short shank, long shank or slant shank. Berninas are an exception, I think. All three shank types are available.

FMQ - Just do it, though I would practice on a sandwich first and the draw the pattern I wanted on a surface with the index finger of my dominant hand, then have at it.

I wish I had your guts. I have pieced many, many quilts, but never quilted a one (except hand quilted 3/4 of a wall hanging 20 years ago) and always end up sending mine out to a LA quilter to do her magic. I wish I believed in myself enough to even practice quilting. I won't even try that because it seems too daunting thinking about quilting an actual quilt. So, hooray for you!!!!

That owl fabric would make a fab border for that quilt!

Walking feet are pretty specific and hard to get for many older machines. A darning foot, however, is generally easier. THAT is what you want to free motion.

Could you get up enough gumption to just do straight line quilting in a grid pattern - even diamond grid? I know exactly how you feel about not wanting to ruin the top. I made top after top and was too afraid to quilt them until a good friend pleaded with me to help her quilt the charity quilts that she had. It was very good practice and of course, i keep getting better with each one that I do. I am not afraid now, and welcome new ideas to improve what I do. Start practising on some practice sandwiches and you should get brave enough to try the nice one.
My friend deliberately made me get out of my comfort zone, and I still do 10mins practice on a sandwich before starting a new quilt, as it loosens me up. All the best with it.

Before working on a big quilt, try FMQ on potholders. For this nice little quilt, why not try a 4" grid using your walking foot and some masking or painters tape? That will work fine and look quite nice. It will help you practice maneuvering your quilt around.