Patriotic Paisley Patchwork

I have been working on this quilt for about a week...the piecing was done on day one, but I have been doing machine quilting to embellish it for several days. This is a "Quartered Nines" quilt...meaning you make nine-patch blocks, then cut them in quarters to make new blocks. It is a very fun and easy quilt to piece and put together. My finished quilt is 36" x 36" - but "Quartered Nines" works well for just about any size you can imagine. I used my AccuQuilt GO! to cut the quilt top - utilizing the 5" Square Die, the 1 1/2" Strip Cutter Die, the 2" Strip Cutter Die, and the 3 1/2" Strip Cutter Die...but obviously, if you haven't acquired a GO!, you could easily rotary cut this project. I wanted to work on a small quilt for the upcoming 4th of July holiday and this fabric worked perfectly - it is a fabric line from a year or two ago called "Wiscasset" by Minick & Simpson for Moda. After the piecing and pin basting was completed, I started machine quilting by stitching in the ditch. Next, for the sixteen full squares, I printed a floral pattern on a piece of paper...pinned it to the center block...and then quilted directly on the lines....once I was done, I just removed the paper - this works really well if you are like me and can only dream of the day you have a longarm machine. A couple tips, if you try this quilting method - use a recyclable or thinner (cheaper) paper, that is easier to tear - I use paper that is made for paper pieced quilting...and the smaller your stitches are, the easier it is to remove the paper (I like a larger quilting stitch, so it takes me quite a while to tear away all the paper). I still want to machine quilt a complimenting pattern in the borders (I'm thinking stars), as well....but for now, I am pretty happy with the results and I will be able to use it on my table for the holiday.