Depression II Challenge Block

Here is my second quilt block for Quilt It! Challenge. Only one more Depression Block left. There is plenty of time for you to grab a badge (see sidebar @ SewExcitedQuilts.com) and join Quilt It! Challenge. Really, we won't be making our final WC Challenge pieces until October. [I know, I can't wait either!]

Tried a themed block this time:  seashore.
Here are my inspirations from Quilt It! Challenge pin-board:

Sun for inner border

starfish medallion



Is there an easy way to "dot the I's and cross the T's" in free motion quilting?  Guess I'm going to find out. I'm using fun seashore words: waves, shells, and
Summertime bliss :)

Here is my block:

 



This time I used 3 matching threads: blue-green, orange, pink.
I did the starfish twice. I marked  points for how long the arms should be and for their widest part.

Why doesn't starfish look as centered on the back?

 

Learning from my first Quilt It! Challenge project, I "spent the thread" and drew the sun rays first before filling in the negative space.  Once I decided how to bisect the angles, it was easy. Start with the center/large ray. It is over seam, so that is easy to align. You have to start each shorter ray at base of big ray, DA. Short rays meet the center edge of patch, which creates a new triangle. Outside edge of short ray bisects the new triangle.

 

I want to have a "go to" border that I can do anytime without marking. Waves might be it. They were much easier than I imagined. Less turned out to be more in free-motion wave drawing. A few perfectly shaped waves filled space nicer than many evenly spaced waves. Of course, this gridded fabric made it easy to keep a constant baseline.

 

Stripe outer border also made handwriting practice easier to align. Pink thread words don't show up well, so you'll have to trust me, not bad at all! Especially considering how scary my real cursive is, I was pleasantly surprised :) No easy way to cross the T's; just go around the whole border a second time filling in those little details. 

Thanks for reading! Alex has a special surprise for tomorrow's Totally Tech Tuesday post: an interview with Laser quilter Donice Reed! There is even a video!!!