how to fix free motion blahs

I am doing some intense quilting on a quilt with busy fabrics... first of all, what a waste of time!  Why don't I just do something simple since nothing shows up on this fabric anyway.  But it's for a friend, and she wanted something wowie on her top.  She did give me carte blanche with this (you're going to wonder about that soon!)

so here is part of the quilt.  All that work and it's just blah....  So what to do?  

What if I put in a tight tight scribble fill around  those star points instead of a looser fill.  It really popped that star after I filled it in.  of course, it took a while...

And whoops, I did a ton of "Nemeshing" around this flower.  Can't see it?  neither can I!  I could see it fine while I was quilting it and looking closely.  Oh will I never learn??  So what to do?

How about a little tsukineko paint dabbed onto the feathers with a fantastik?  I think it worked perfectly.  But you see why I needed to have carte blanche - to do whatever I wanted.  Can you believe I painted on a friend's quilt?  Me neither?  It had to be done though :)

In my defense, this was a quilt top that she had for many years and never got around to quilting it herself.  She said to "work my magic" on it.  Hope she doesn't regret that!

I have a finish too!  

This is a dupioni silk quilt top that my friend had embroidered.  It too, sat around in a closet for years.  I am going to surprise her with this finished quilt at our Christmas party.  (It may not be a surprise if she sees this...)  

FYI, I quilted in the red with a pink metallic thread.  It quilted beautifully one day, but the next day it tangled and broke and snarled, arggg!  I changed needles, even tried a different sewing machine, fiddled around forever to no avail.  Then I looked out the window and realized that the weather had changed dramatically.  A front came in and I had the heater on, when the day before we actually had the AC on.  So I got out my Sewer's Aid silicone lubricant and smeared it on the thread spool.  Wow, I finished the quilting without anymore trouble.  I bet I will remember that trick next time, I hope you will too!  Later, Karen

 "Keep your sense of humor, my friend; if you don't have a sense of humor it just isn't funny anymore." - Wavy Gravy