Down the Rabbit Hole Quilt

 

Down the Rabbit Hole is a quilt of embroidery, applique and machine quilting that this girl really had no plan to begin with other than the inspiration given by this Gee's Bend quilt for the quilty front:

and it just went from there. I chose to do embroidery because I had 2 camping trips planned, and now that I don't have little ones to chase, I quite wanted something quilty to busy myself with, so I ironed on the applique details before our trip commenced, and embroidered away until our return to all things homey. I used the thicker pearl cotton instead of the traditional dmc floss for the embroidery work.

When deciding every last stitch of embroidery goodness was complete, this girl joined it all together into a quilt sandwich:

 Now for an adventure in whimsical free-motion quilting using my Janome. (I say 'mighty' Janome, cuz it sewed through my finger not too long ago earning my respect!) It's really a rather simple sewing machine. It only sews forward and backward - with power. No zig-zag or fancy stitches. It is what is called a long arm, giving just a little more room to squish a huge quilt into during the sewing process. This machine is really a bare bones model. I even have to remove the feed dogs with a screw driver when doing free motion quilting, which makes it helpful to have a second machine for regular sewing.

Free-motion has become something I really enjoy. I feel like I finally have a non-messy paint brush I can deal with. And you should see me with a paint brush. Not a pretty picture, for sure. Paint everywhere but where it should be. Quilting by swirling and whirling in and around, little abstract, a little orderly, a lot of improv design, seems to flow for this girl.

For those of you unfamiliar with free motion quilting, here is a video showing the process.

It works well with being a home school mom, too. I'm always one that likes bringing beauty into the home as much as I can. Working at the kitchen table, in the middle of all the home school hustle and bustle and questions and answer also keeps me connected to the kiddos and where they are at in their studies, which is important to me. I can stop and start anytime to help them, walk to the beach, or create dinnertime eats. It takes just minutes to set up or put away. Or I just leave the school & quilt stuff untouched, and we eat around the coffee table.

The larger spiraling circles throughout the quilt complement the 3 round flower appliques:

 

This was a fun quilt, and like the Rabbit in Alice and Wonderland, this girl had no idea where she was going when this quilt she began, but in the end, she is quite happy with it, although she cannot really tell which is side is the front.