More quilt tops

So SOMEONE needs to build me a sewing cabinet, until then I'm too nervous to do much free motion quilting, because of the weight of the blanket off the edge of my machine. (Someone knows who he is- but if you, the reader, want to build me one, that's good too.)

Anyhow, in the meantime, I made another quilt top.

This design is called New Wave (also, this blog is brilliant- a must read!) and was much harder than I thought it would be. I don't know if it is my cutting or my sewing off (I'm inclined to blame the cutting) but I had a hard time lining everything up. When I squared up the blocks I realized that that meant the top/bottom of the block was now wider/narrower than it should be (because it is shorter) so now it won't line up with the matching strip. But, in the end, as long as you don't look too closely I think it actually looks pretty good. It is lap quilt sized. I can't wait to get it finished and cuddle up with it on the couch. The patterned fabric was all from my stash, the white I had to purchase (I need to stash more solids- and quilt backs! I need to order backs for 4 tops now!)
This was my first time using a template. I found plastic material at fabric.com for a really cheap price, so making the template was no problem, but lining it up with my ruler was tough. I ruined my cutting blade (which needs to be replaced anyway) because I kept slicing off edges of the template. There is apparently a ruler that has a very similar shape that can be used for this- it changes the proportions of the quilt a little, but I think it would be worth it.

To quilt this, I thought I would just run straight lines parallel to the seams inside the color patches, and then do some sort of loopy free motion design along the white strips- what do you think?

I also finished up my "Skinny Dip" quilt that I showed fabric for a while back. But when I put it on the bed I thought it was too small, so I visited my LQS and bought fabrics for borders. No pictures until I do the sashing.

The woman who runs this store is so nice- they didn't have the Machingers gloves in my size, so she is ordering them. She also helped me with some free motion advice last time I was in there so I brought in my sampler to show her, both the owner and another woman in the shop didn't believe that was really my first one. They said that tension on the back doesn't count when you are learning :) and that my stitch size on the front was really uniform, and they could tell the tension on the back got better as I went along and did more squares. Once I do some free motion at home I do think I'll sign up for the long arm class. Unfortunately, almost all the fabric is $10 a yard, so I won't be able to shop there too much. I am going to try to take a class about applique though. Sadly, I have to take off work to do it, so I won't be able to go much (they do a project a month- cute wall hangings)