Quilting the Dream

OMS! What an adventure this quilt is turning out to be! And, quite the learning experience, too. Last time I posted, I had managed to get the quilting design drawn onto freezer paper. I used an exacto knife to cut on the drawn lines then ironed the freezer paper onto my sandwiched quilt. I didn't think to get pics of this process and should have - it was quite entertaining.  Lesson learned: freezer paper templates work great for small areas. For an entire quilt? not so much. By the time I got it to my machine, it was starting to come loose & the bulk was difficult to handle on my little short arm machine. IBefore long I was ready to switch my tea for something way stronger. So back to the cutting table I went. I had initially planned to use a Frixion pen to mark the quilt lines, then decided not to because another QCA member had warned about the fact that although the marked lines go away when heat is applied, they come back when cold. She was right, but  after unsuccessfully trying to use just the freezer paper, I reconsidered. And, I admit, capitulated. My reasoning was that even though marked lines come back if exposed to cold, 1) hopefully most of my lines would be stitched over and so would not show if this were to happen and 2) I couldn't imagine a circumstance when this quilt would be exposed to temps that cold (my own experiments had the marks coming back only after being in the freezer or showing up very lightly after being in the fridge for about half an hour. They went away again after being re-exposed to heat.). The only other things I had to mark with were white - and a lot of this quilt is white. So, I wound up using the red Frixion pen and made little dots instead of lines, and mostly covered them with my stitching, which was also red. I'll admit to a couple of other issues. After cutting the sew lines on the freezer paper it was really floppy. I thought I had all the half-circle "arms" lined up just right & I didn't. I didn't even notice it until today (and I did this 2 days ago), so it will have to do. While I was pressing the freezer paper on, my iron went crazy and started vomiting water all over everything - quilt, floor, me. I had the steam turned off and apparently it was feeling ignored & threw a tantrum. (Does anyone else have days like this?) In spite of me, the center quilting design is done.  Oh! Almost forgot to mention: the celtic knots on the quilt? I painted them on with a stencil & a Shiva paint stick. I was really pleased with how well they turned out.  Tomorrow I'll start working on the rest of the quilting. Wish me luck!