Wheee! Free Motion Quilting on an X & O Comfort Quilt

As mentioned in a few of my recent blogs, I have built up a number of quilt tops which require quilting.  I always find it a bit intimidating deciding how to quilt a quilt and feeling my skills don't measure up.  I know that my Free Motion quilting skills are weak and there is no way to get better than to practise.  To just "dip my toe in", I decided to start with the smallest quilt I had in the pile. 

Last year a few X & O quilt blocks were left over from a guild sew day and a couple of months ago, I made two more X's and one O to be able to make an X & O comfort quilt using 9 blocks.  I also washed a red piece of flannel for the back as I knew it would shrink more than the top of the quilt and I was afraid the red dye would run as well.  I washed and rinsed it about 4 times before the water stopped turning pink.  Here's an indoors picture of the top before quilting.

This morning, I got the backing on the frame, cut a piece of batting and layered the top on and started free motion quilting.  I did "C" quilting from corner to corner in all the blocks as my base pattern.  If you look closely, probably not one of them is exactly the same size but standing back and looking the overall effect is fine.  Then I quilted a different design within each X and O, except for two which I both quilted with the words "hugs & kisses".  Here's an outside picture of the finished quilt.

Here are some detail pictures.

wiggles

cinnamon buns

flowers

hugs & kisses

random loops

stippling

moo, oink, baa, quack - because of the animals in the fabric

And here's the back.

Once I have the binding on and the quilt washed so the texture really shows up, I'll post some more pictures. 

Now, to choose which quilt to put on the frame next.....