The Evolution of a Quilting Motif

I wanted to quilt with a sewing theme for my Dancing Spools quilt.  I quickly decided on a bobbin motif with connecting thread as the design, and then played around until I was happy with the results.  As you can see from the drawing in the upper left corner, the spools started out as seen from above.  My husband said that they didn't look like spools though, so I changed the perspective to a side view, as seen in the lower right.

Next, I tried my design on scrappy quilt sandwiches.

Eventually, I simplified it to this....

I call this version an "empty bobbin"

When I moved from scrap sandwiches to the actual quilt, I decided to use a mixture of both the "full" and the "empty" bobbin designs.  

I used a walking foot to quilt the thread spools with straight rows to mimic thread lines.  

The quilting was fun to do (although the thread spools got a bit tedious with all the straight stitching).  I am happy with the overall look.

What have you been working on?

I've linked up with Free Motion Friday,  Fabric Tuesday, Sew Much Ado, Adorned from Above, Off the Wall Fridays, and Anything Goes