On the Design Wall

Here's the top half of this quilt I'm making. Last night, after this photo, I began trimming and sewing some of these units together.  It's exciting to see this one coming together.  This is going to be one bright quilt! 

Those framing pieces are a dark navy.  I think this will help tame and unify this design.  There will be piano keys in various batiks for a border, then most likely, that same navy frame will surround the piano keys and also will bind.

The large blocks for the bottom rows are on my pantograph shelf of my Tin Lizzie.  Their smaller surrounding blocks aren't all finished, but I'll need to arrange them on this wall to see which set needs blocks. 

I'm not a methodical quiltmaker.  I have yet to cut out all the pieces of a quilt before beginning to sew.  The decide-as-you-go method works well for me.  I realize that some might cringe at this disregard for details, but it works for me.  That spare lizard block near the buffalo didn't behave, so it will be disregarded for now.  Maybe it will become a throw pillow.

I have a Bernina Artista 440QE, which dropped a broken spring last month.  It just fell on the fabrics I was sewing.  I need to take a little road trip to get it fixed and as a result, this machine is tucked away in its travel bag.  Instead, I've been using two of my vintage machines that I have shared in previous posts.  The Bernina 830 Record (from the 1970's) has been helping me with satin stitching the fusible applique blocks and also couching perl cotton in the embroidery blocks.  I've used the Necchi Supernova Automatica (from about 1955) for straight stitching.  The main reasons for these choices are the feet needed for each task.  It's nice to set up each machine and not constantly change the feet.

I'll share more progress soon and maybe some close-ups of the couching embroidery, a new-to-me technique.

Enjoy your day!
- SeeingStars