Quilted Turtles

This is one of those long-term projects. I made the first of the blocks back in October 2012 and put together a tutorial explaining how to make the block with the AcccuQuilt Go! Drunkard's Path and Dresden Plate dies. Then I went through the usual routine of trouble choosing the right green fabrics (because I only got to use 16 different prints -- that's daunting!), putting it aside to work on something else, losing some of the pieces (big problem since the light blue background is a vintage sheet that I was never going to be able to match), not knowing what to do for a border...messing up the math for the border...  I got the top assembled last September and basted it on Mom's longarm in late November.

The plan has always been to quilt each turtle in a different design.

Turtle #1 is a single continuous spiral, which was probably the worst idea I could have come up with. This quilt is so much bigger and heavier than anything I've done on my DSM in recent months that I couldn't maneuver it smoothly. I thought it would be just like quilting a spiral on a baby quilt, but it's not for a lot of different reasons that I should have probably realized in advance.

Turtle #2 is a kind of radiating flower design. Starts in the center and goes out, just like the spiral, but it offers a lot more opportunities to start and stop without obvious glitches in the stitching.  

Turtle #3 is a kind of pebbled design, which really  shows up well on this fabric. I think it might be my favorite turtle so far!