MACHINE QUILTING

I've been busy working on a quilt for my sister-in-law.  A few years ago, I helped her make some "stack-n-whack" star blocks.  She made a quilt top, but recently decided that she wanted the quilt for her king-size bed.  More borders were added, but then it sat for a while, as she had difficulty working on such a large quilt. She gave me the fabric for the backing, but wants to put the binding on when it is returned.
I brought it south with me for the winter, and just before Christmas DH and I pin-basted the quilt. 

I started, as always, to stabilize the quilt, stitching in the ditch with Superior Thread's MonoPoly and Bottom Line in the bobbin.  Then I auditioned various thread for the top.  I used a light blue twist thread on the yellow border and sashing.

 I stitched hooked feathers on the wide border, and alternating swirls on the sashing.

Next, I use a lemon yellow thread to stitch square and triangular flowers in the solid fabric in each of the 30 blocks.

I still haven't stitched inside the stars, and I also have 2 more borders to quilt, with one in the solid fabric, and the other in the original print fabric used in the stars.  I need to ponder what type of machine quilting to use in each of the areas.

I've also been working on the two mystery quilts that my group is working on.  I made step-out samples for the first block units of the paper pieced wall hanging, and today I worked on the sewing the first step of the pieced lap/twin quilt.