Solid windmills

I've spent very little time at the sewing machine lately,

but I have been playing with windmills in a few rare spare moments.

For this quilt, I chose to use solids, mostly Kona, some not,

because then I didn't have to worry about left and right blades of the windmills.

I found this a puzzle to put together.

This type of quilt is why we need design walls,

because each block interlocks with the next.

I used my portable, foldable design wall for this project--

a thrift shop picnic tablecloth.

the fuzzy side works perfectly to keep the blocks in place

and you can roll up the whole thing and take it with you

to a retreat or sewing day.

Here's the whole top, measuring 40 by 40 inches.

I'm making it for the fourth baby of friends

who got rid of their baby gear after number three.

I'm figuring out backing options

and thinking about using one of the reds for binding.

But I'm also pondering how to machine quilt it.

This might be a great design to outline in hand stitches,

but that's impractical by machine, since that's lots of stops and starts.

What advice do you have for me?

A stipple? squiggles? something else in free motion?

I'm linking up to The Needle and Thread Network WIP Wednesdays
and Quiltstory.

Windmills are turning

Another layout, now about two-fifths done. I decided to put the printed windmills in a diagonal row and all the rest is random. The print is Kaufman Effervescence and most of the solids are Kona.