Thank you for all the nice comments. It's lovely to show a quilt to people who understand, know what I mean?

Ritzy, my EQ7 is for Mac! They finally did it. And it works really well too. I have had no problems so far. But what is annoying is that Blockbase has not been formatted for Mac so I can't add that to the endless possibilities for block choices. Maybe that's a good thing.....

Beverly, the threads I used were mainly because they worked with the fabrics colour-wise and I had enough of each of them to be able to complete the project. But I have to say that my Janome seems to be happiest using a good quality thread, and the polyester threads create so much less lint in the bobbin area.

Dawn, something to add to your thoughts when buying a new machine, the man who sold me my last two machines always said that a side-loading bobbin works much better for FMQ than a top-loading one.

Once again I am way behind in reading the posts (45 in this thread alone).

Rosemary--you will never be able to deny that beautiful girl as yours--she looks just like you. Her outfit is wonderful and makes me think I may want to go back to making some outfits for myself.

Rita--I have EQ4(I know dinosaur) and I spent a good amount of time trying to get proficient with it. Never was able to get good at it. I can't imagine learning and getting the designing, piecing, appliqué and quilting done in 6 weeks. I bow to your talents. Well done! Is your EQ7 for Mac?

Rita your quilt is absolutely wonderful your niece is so lucky.
Best Wishes
Pam

Rosemary, Izzy's two piece outfit is so beautiful and really perfect coloring for her complexion and hair. That must have been some intense work to adapt pieces from different eras, 3-D in the back, lace and grosgrain... the peplum looks seamless between the bodice and skirt. You are simply A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!

Rita, your niece and her groom-to-be are so fortunate to be receiving such a perfect heirloom quilt for their wedding. I can only imagine the amount of work it took to quilt it on your domestic machine, but the quilting designs are so well integrated with the blocks--it all flows beautifully! Now you have one more for your other niece... can't wait to see that one when you're ready to post photos. Thanks for the detailed photos--great inspiration!

Wow, Rita, your quilt is gorgeous. I am glad you listed the threads you used . . . . . threads to use for quilting is a quandary for me other than the bobbin thread. Was there any special reasoning behind your various choices (other than color?) of the types you used? I know they will treasure this quilt forever more!

Thanks for all of the information, Rita! I do remember when you were considering and buying your new Horizon. I still covet it, due to the added lighting and large harp area. And, I guess by your definition, I also have two longarms!

Does anyone have the new BabyLock Crescendo? I'm beginning to look for my next/last sewing machine, and am overwhelmed. I love the ease of a drop in bobbin, but had forgotten that a quilt must be removed before reloading a bobbin. I love all of the extra lightening and large harps that most newer machines have, but don't want to pay a lot for extras that I will never use. Any good things or bad things for me to consider, would be helpful. My favorite and trusted quilt store carries BabyLock, the other store carries Bernina, and a vacuum/industrial cleaners store carries the Janome. (Back up and support are super important with a new machine!)

Thanks!
Dawn

Rita,
I'm so impressed with your gorgeous quilt! Everything about it is wonderful.

Excellent work Rita! A beautiful quilt that your niece is sure to treasure.

Thanks for sharing all your pictures as well as your hints and techniques. I may be borrowing some of your quilting ideas!

Thanks,

Geneva

Rita, I won't repeat what everyone else said, but I agree. I love the colors! They are some of my favorites. Your quilting is beautiful. Now I am beginning to wish I had EQ7. I will stop here, because I am repeating. Have a great day. Oh, happy you got a new machine. Have fun playing!!

Gorgeous work Rosemary and Rita! Thanks for all the pictures.

Rita, I love all the close ups and hearing how you went about making your quilting decisions.

Wow, Rita! Everything about this quilt is gorgeous!! Isn't EQ7 fun? The only problem is that you can so easily design so many quilts that you want to make, that you get depressed that you don't have enough time to make them all.

I love your design and the colors you chose. And your quilting is beautiful and really highlights the design of the quilt. All wonderful!!

Thanks for all the lovely comments Ladies. I am really pleased with how it turned out. I originally quilted the centre medallion with stippling but hated it so much that I had to unpick it all, soak the quilt centre and iron it to get all the stitch holes out of it. Fortunately I used a 75/11 needle so the holes weren't very big. I have learned a valuable lesson from this - once you have stabilised the quilt with SID it doesn't matter where you begin the FMQ so it's wise to never begin in the centre, particularly if you don't mark the whole quilt design before batting. As I quilted this quilt I realized that I wanted it to have an Art Deco feel to it so I had to re-do the centre with the central motif of a circle with two intertwined hearts and wedding rings in it which seemed to suit much better as well as the straight lines around the white area to frame it.

I don't have very many stencils - and the ones I have always end up being the wrong size so for example the 'Weardale chain' Rosemary was achieved with a 2 1/2" circle template and then I stitched in the ditch around the 4-patches. The wavy lines in the lavender sashing were achieved with a shape which had been part of the kids toy set called 'Ello'. When they were done with it I kept any shape that I thought might be useful, and the snake shape was one of them. The heart shape in the border is one I cut out of heavy plastic years ago and it just happened to be about the size I wanted. I used the walking foot for any straight lines and the wavy lines between the hearts on the border was a decorative stitch on the machine.

Dawn it's lovely to see you again. I do have a long arm, actually two of them, but not the kind you are referring to. I used a Janome Horizon to quilt this one. But I can't claim the design as my own because I think I saw Linda Taylor doing something like that on one of her long arm videos on youtube. (If you haven't seen them there are a whole pile of videos with Linda Taylor which have been released on youtube by Gammill.)

Rita your quilt is absolutely beautiful ! I love the colors the piecing the design the quilting !! What a wonderful wedding gift !!
Hugs, Joanne

Rita, that is beautiful. I love the whole balance of it. and super speedy too.

Just looked at the small attachment at the bottom of your post - I love how you have quilted the flying geese, it made it look like a different block. The Weardale chain you have on the on point 4 patches is also inspired (I might be borrowing that idea sometime )