I had fun piecing this block and wanted to quilt it in a way that emphasized the motif in the middle that looks like it’s dancing. I quilted around the center square and then around edge of the brown shape, creating a diagonal line from the corners of the square to the edges so I could travel easily. I mirrored the line at each corner for symmetry. Then I broke thread to quilt the background, using parallel lines in the open areas and diagonal lines around the cream triangles. Those are a little uneven because the red thread blends really well with the small leaf print and I lost track of where I was a few times.

This was a fun block to quilt and I like the diagonals around the flying geese triangles, though clearly I need to practice that a bit more.

Happy Thoughts is block 66 of The Splendid Sampler and was designed by Vanessa Goertzen.