Mini Quilt Monday, week 3

week one week two week three See what happens when I join a group like Mini Quilt Monday?
I force myself to create something and get it done.Yesterday I got off to a rough start, due to spending time making a frog for the little neighbor girl.
She drew the face and body (with heart) and I drew the legs and did the rest. It took me an hour.
 It was fun but I really wanted to make a mini quilt and use a pattern from the Moda Bakeshop. I have a small round table in the living room that we use as a coffee table and have been wanting to make (a sort of) place mat for it.
After printing the pattern on to some Carol Doak paper piecing paper I began making the dresden quarters using my scraps.
That was fun and I really enjoy the precision of paper piecing. I use this little  add a quarter seam ruler to trim and that really helps make it easy.
The quilt recipe calls for appliqueing the center- well, actually, I didn't use the pattern for what it was supposed to be at all (theirs looks like a piece of candy when 4 are put together) because I only wanted a round circle to fit the table and this worked perfectly.
For the center I put a cream colored fabric over the hole and sewed around with a 1'4" seam, cut out the center opening and flipped it around so that I had a clean edged opening and then pinned the owl fabric to the bottom and stitched around it. I have shown this technique here several times and I like it instead of applique sometimes.
 Its like creating a window in the center.
The most difficult decision for me, is always how to quilt it.
Should I do it by machine?
 By hand?
What design?
What color thread- or perle cotton?
After a brief discussion with my "go to guy" he said- quilt it by hand with vines.
I said: "dude! excellent!" and was off like a surf rat after a radical big one- the adrenalin flowing with the juice of creation, and a smile on my face, I watched some on demand (CSI, NCIS and Medium) while the needle added green perle cotton to the round quilt until it said it was done. Then I added rick rack around the edge before I sewed on some vintage aqua bias.
As I placed it on the small table and carried it in to show  "Mr Go To Guy" I said now, don't spill your coffee on this!
 To which he replied: " me? , you mean you- don't cha?"
yep, that would be me, calamity kim, spilling the coffee all over this adorable round mini quilt...he never spills anything- it's always me!
I'll be more careful now, I think.
Maybe I should make a plastic cover for it?
 Maybe I should just hang it on the wall and use a paper towel like I was before?
Oh, the joy of being a klutz!
One more thing to worry about.
I have to learn to let it go- I haven't even spilled the coffee yet! Maybe I should make a place mat that has coffee stains as the design and that would be funny and functional. Too droll?
OK, enjoy the quilt, even if it's a day late and will some day be stained with calamity coffee.
love & stitches,
kim

ps,

check this out