Project #2 on new machine is finished!  Thanksgiving Pilgrim table runner.

Patrick Loses' pattern "Pilgrim Pals" can be  found on p.69 in the Fall 2012 edition of the Fons & Porter's Quilting Celebrations magazine.  You might also find it online at QuiltingCelebrations.com

As someone who has taken a grand total of one class using fusible web, and having never used satin stitching, until the new sewing machine appeared...  I'd classify this as a great beginner project!

In the photo above I have the basic top put together, with pilgrims fused into place.  

LESSON LEARNED:  Make sure when you are layering fabric (especially light on top of dark) that the lighter fabric is not thin.  In this next photo, a close up of the girls face shows where her lighter hat does not conceal the bottom layer of either dark brown border, or her red hair.  I actually had to fuse a second layer of white for collars and her bonnet to get it to look right, but now it is stiff.

The photo below shows her now "fixed"  and showing my first satin stitching.  I did use stabilizer under the leaves, but apparently maybe a iron on would of worked better to control the fabric stretching.  More research to do.

Here is the close up on free motion quilting.  Again, I went to Leah Days website  www.daystyledesigns.com for inspiration.  I found a wind pattern I liked, but it was an intermediate/advanced free motion quilt design.  I also found several leaf motifs.  So I combined the ideas to make the wind  swirl in between my leaves - beginner simplified!!

And finally the big reveal...Mr. Pilgrim

Ms. Pilgrim

And don't leaf (pun intended) out the fun in the binding - a new fancy stitch from my new machine... a swirly vine with leaves.

Thankful for many things,

Laura