Disappearing 9 Patch Quilt with Applique

Isn't it a beauty?
Quilting on this top was finished late- very late- last night. The center is busy so we decided on freehand "swirls" and the border is simply stippled, Nadine didn't want any quilting inside the applique so they will "pop" a little. I love how she has combined the simplicity of the blocks with dramatic hand applique, it's a very pretty quilt.

Black thread on black fabric makes it hard to see much quilting detail, but it's better in the photo below.

I am now working on piecing another Shakespeare quilt with a different arrangement of the original three colors, red, black and white. It's taxing my brain a bit, figuring out how many of the flying geese of what color combination I need for the small stars and what to cut for the monkey wrench blocks.

We had baby Matthew again today [two days this week, we got lucky] so my brain was on baby not quilting! These grandchildren are such delightful little distractions!

I am going to cut only what I need for the SITP as I go so as not to get myself too confused or make wasteful cutting errors. I got well along on the first 14 of the small stars this evening. I am going for a different effect with this Shakespeare quilt and there will be much more red in the second version. I have been thinking about some way to bring back more black now, never content!