WIP Wednesday - Challenge Quilt

I'm making progress on my challenge quilt.  This weekend I sewed the paper pieced center to a dark red background.  Not my favorite but I'm limited by the challenge in the number of colors I can use (only three).

This was my first experience sewing curves and though it isn't 100% beautiful and perfect I'm happy with how it came out.  It lays flat and there's only slight puckering around the edges.

I ended up taking my background fabric and cutting a large circle in the middle of it then pinning and sewing all the way around the paper pieced medallion.  Not the easiest method but I had already removed the papers and didn't want to risk warping the gem center.  For future reference I would probably finish each section in quarters then sew the whole thing together.

For added interest I used some the remaining oakshotts and added a simple pieced border to the top of the panel.




I started out by stitching in the ditch of the gem with my FMQ foot to highlight the center star and the diamonds created in the outer rings of the gem.  I also added some little "sparkles" through out the gem.  I plan on finishing them with some hand quilting in metallic thread and adding some shiny seed beads to help the quilt shine (pun intended).

Since the theme is birthdays I decided to FMQ chrysanthemums (November's flower) onto the background in a dark red thread using a tutorial by Rachel at Stitched in Color.  This is my first experience free motion quilting on my new Janome sewing machine.  So far I'm incredibly happy with the outcome.

  I'm linking up with this weeks WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.