Chameleons, red herrings and quilting

If you've read anything of my blog, you know I like paper piecing. Okay, like is an understatement. ;) There are just so many cute patterns around, it's really hard to resist.

So when ShapeMoth mentioned on her blog that she had released her Carl the Chameleon pattern... well I seriously could not resist. I bought it. And I've already made it.

Is that not the cutest chameleon ever? It reminds me of Pascal from the movie Tangled. The pattern was easy to make and came together fairly quickly.

While on the topic of paper piecing... I did add one more block to my fake Herringbone block collection - I'm calling them Red Herrings. Like herringbone, but not. So here's a red red herring.

And here they are looking happy together so far. Well they make me happy anyways. Can't wait to get more of these put together!

So talking progress. I actually have some big progress to report! I have finished quilting the XOXO quilt! It's possible you may be hearing the Hallelujah chorus right now - at least I am since snipping that last thread. I debated whether I had quilted it enough, but I really like simple quilting. So I went with a basic outline of the diamonds, then I decided to add a touch of fancypants quilting in the centres. I FMQ'd some flowers. But I totally cheated.

Scuse the creases - that's what happens when you shove a queen size quilt through a regular size sewing machine!

Jane from QCA pinned a tutorial on FMQing motifs and I decided to try it out. Let me tell you, it worked brilliantly.  I found a flower motif I liked, printed it out. Lined it up with a stack of paper and traced over the lines with the darning foot (no thread). That transfers your design in dot form to all the paper squares. It also gives you an idea of what it's like to quilt the design. Then all I had to do was pin the paper in place, and FMQ my little heart out.

I was particularly pleased when one of the flowers I did on the front lined up beautifully on the back. look at this - almost centred in my Circle of Geese block!

I doubt I could have done that if I had tried! It's possible I did a happy dance and cheered when I saw this. It's all possible I got some really weird looks from Lulu who is also possibly wondering how on earth she could be related to this crazy woman. One day she'll understand. ;)

So now all that remains is to trim it up (that sounds way easier than I think it is - tips welcome!) and then to bind it. Oh and I still need to pick all the paper out of the flowers too. Saving that to do tonight while I watch Offspring.

Here's hoping to have a big Queen Size finish soon! :) It is Mother's Day this weekend, wonder if I can blitz through this in time to wrap it for my mum! Wish me luck!

Linking up with WiP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced :)