Cathy's Anniversary Quilt

Cathy told me to "have fun" with this quilt leaving all the options open. 

I love piano key borders and prefer to use straight line fourth inch outline quilting that contrasts nicely with something fancier in the sashing.

I chose a medium/light blue thread and Quilter's Dream Select batting. The body of the quilt  has a feathery freehand design, I knew no matter the thread the quilting would not show up well there and indeed much of the time it was most difficult to see where I had already quilted

 In hindsight I would have been better off with one of two other options and I will endeavor to keep that in mind next time I have a similar challenge!
I might have quilted the center of the quilt from the back [which is a tone on tone medium blue] or I could have chosen to use a pantograph or Circle Lord design, either of which would have removed the issue of thread blend on the busy fabrics.

It looks in this picture as if the back is even more challenging to see the stitching but in fact under the machines overhead lights it is actually much clearer.
I am a little handicapped at the moment by a stress fracture of my heel and I am wearing one of those compression boots, great clumsy things they are too, so I think I will do a bit of piecing this week. I was able to use my nice ergonomic saddle stool at the long arm machine for some of the quilting, it rolls around fairly easily and has adjustable height.

Linking up with "Needle work Tuesday"