What is under my needle today

This is what is under my needle today.  It's my Mom's Rick Rack Nines, a pattern from Bonnie Hunter's Adventures with Leaders and Enders book.

Actually, it has been under my needle now for the past week, as I haven't had a chance to touch it all week.  I have two passes done and one quarter of the third pass started, with five more passes to do after that.  So I am not really that close to being done on it, but when I was working on it, it was going well.

I am practicing this simple curve variation for all the small blocks, which makes a secondary design of a pinwheel type star.  At this point I am getting very consistent with my curves and hitting my points.  In the larger white blocks I am practicing ruler work with these echoing diamond shapes.

It takes some time to get everything down pat, but at this point I have also learnt how to start on the left side and make my way, all the way, across the quilt and back in one pass.  It only took me two full passes to learn it, but hay, I did learn it.

Learning to quilt on the longarm is practice, practice and more practice, to learn how to move fluently and efficiently with the least amount of stops and starts.  I can honestly tell you that, this has been a very big learning curve for me, from quilting on my domestic machine.

I have to do some work at my Mom's place tomorrow and a kid's birthday party on Sunday, but still hoping to get a bit more done on this quilt between.  My daughter gave me a suggestion for the final border that I am getting excited to try.

Most of my customers, family and friends are thus far more the traditional quilt makers, who prefer traditional quilting designs to go with their quilts.  Well, last month some time, I ordered a specialty ruler that is supposed to help make the Baptist fan quilting design, easier and quicker, the traditional way and without the spaces you usually get when using a pantograph.

I can't wait to try it!