Right now, I am running the second round of the Table Talk Swap on Flickr. We are exchanging table toppers or table runners to our partners size specifications and including the colors they requested.  I decided to make a rose garden for my partner using Rosie’s Rose paper pieced pattern by Piece by Number. Each block finishes at 6″ square so I thought eight would be the minimum number I could get away with for a runner. They took longer than I expected but choosing different fabrics for each rose kept me interested.

The finished quilt top seemed to beg for free motion quilting so I gathered my courage and set to it.  I made a swirl from the center of each rose to the outermost petal.  Then I stitched veins inside of each leaf.

I decided to do an all over meandering vine pattern throughout the background.  I love the way it softens the lines of the paper piecing and sashing so that your eye is drawn to the roses.

This shot is a little blurry but it shows off the lovely texture!