Quilting "My Tweets" by Erin Russek

I fell in love with"My Tweets" an applique quilt by Erin Russek years ago and was determined to finish it. I thought this would be an easy project.  I was wrong.  In fact, I stuffed the quilt in a drawer and forgot about it.  I hated it.  I wanted to burn it but I'd put too much work into it.

I didn't hate the pattern,  Erin makes fabulous quilt projects so check out what she does.  I just was overwhelmed all those pieces, reverse tracing, fusible webbing, multiple fabrics and then all the satin stitching.  I didn't square the blocks correctly and everything was a mess.  I had to redo the entire center because I messed up the background size.  I got to the border and that's when it was stuffed into a drawer.

The pattern was designed by Erin Russek around 2011 and it's now 2018 so that explains how long it's been stuffed in a drawer.  It took a couple of years or so to get this far.  Then my dad's wife came to visit and found the quilt.  Her and my dad fell in love and asked if I would finish it for her.  I agreed to finish it for her and my dad out of love.

Here's the top w/o the light green border fabric.

My mom was super awesome and helped me get it all pinned and ready to quilt.  Now to choose how to quilt it.  I haven't quilted in years.  This quilt pretty much ruined it for me.  I started making mini albums and gave up quilting.  I haven't even posted anything for years.

I wondered how other people had done their "My Tweets" quilts but only found two finished quilts.  Both were beautifully quilted but beyond my quilting skills.  I wonder how many others finished this pattern since I could only find two.

My first thought was to use the flowers in the four centers until after I quilted the bottom and realized they were out of proportion and didn't fit around the centers as they were different widths.  It's pretty, but I didn't like it.  I spent yesterday ripping it out.

  I wanted the corners to be like the top of the flower.  I put them in the corner and realized it looked like Art Deco.  Cool.  I then put a one inch strip around the borders to frame the quilt.  It was out of proportion and I didn't like it.

So I cut out two small 1/2 inch strips and laid them out like this.  Much better.  Now the center needed something else.  I did a Google search on art deco but didn't find anything.  I then had the idea to put a square on point in the center and sent a picture.  My dad and Heather loved it.  I still think it needs something else, but will figure it out later.  Now to figure out how to mark it.

Turns out tools for marking quilts hasn't changed.  The usual blue pen (I don't dare because if I wash the quilt, it will probably turn blue), the purple pen and the chalk liners.  Then someone brought up the Frixion pen by Pilot.  Oh my gosh, the ink disappeared when I ironed it!  Pilot was a genius.

Awesome, except the lines come back if you put it in the cold and my background is white.  I emailed the company and asked if they would make a pen like this for fabric.  They said they'd look into it.  This pen does have it's uses, but not on white fabric going to a loved one.  Like others have said, use with caution and test your fabric as Pilot never designed it for fabric.

I think my choice is the purple pen.

Then while at the quilt shop I discovered this:

 Not sure how long this product has been around, but I LOVE it.  The pins are so much easier to use and it's worth the 20 dollars I paid for it.