Finish 5

 The goal of my finish streak is to clear the UFOs.  But I had to take time out to do the dragonfly challenge.  Here is the final pillow case.

 I drew the design onto my muslin fabric using Crayola Ultra-clean Washable Markers.  These have been my go-to marking pen for the past couple years and I love them! Two different decisions I made in the sandwiching.  1) I folded the fabric in half on the upper edge with the batting between to have a finished pillowcase opening.  2) I used 2 layers of batting, 1 bamboo and 1 wool.  I wanted to try some extra loft.

 I decided to do some of the background fill first.   I felt that might hold the batting more securely.  I also thought that it would make the background lines straighter if they were drawn and applied before the dense quilting on the dragonfly.   I used the walking foot and altered directions, as there is still some bunching/gathering that goes on with that foot.

Here's a shot of the micro-quilting from the back side.  The body is 1" wide and the widest section on each wing is 2".  I used Sulky viscose embroidery thread (with an embroidery needle) for the top thread on the dragonfly.  The rest was regular cotton thread.  

The extra batting and the embroidery thread combo took a lot longer for me to get into a groove on the stitching.  It didn't move as smoothly under the needle as I had hoped.  I powered through.  I finished the background lines using the free motion foot, figuring the wobbliness would disappear with washing.  

Picture above is before washing. 

Below is after washing. 

I will be adding this to the Dragonfly Challege page.  There's a link on the upper right of my page you can use in the future to check on any completions that are submitted.