Thanks Mom!

I spent the day with my mom yesterday. We went to her favorite fabric store (and the place where she takes her Bernina classes.) She is a fabulous seamstress. As my children will say when they need anything sewn or mended. "Grandma Esther can do it!" She was my 4-H leader when I was a kid. There is no way I could make a list of all the things she has taught me over the years, some trival, some life-changing, but all have contributed to who and what I am today. I could write for days about my mom...but suffice it to say...she's a "good thing!" We're planning to do a couple of "collaborative" quilts with mom doing the embroidery on her Bernina and me doing the piecing and quilting. We bought some redwork designs for her machine and we're going to start there. Should be so much fun! She also bought a walking foot for her machine so I can start doing some machine quilting. I had no idea how EXPENSIVE it would be. But, I can't tell you how excited I am to get started. I did a tiny sample when I was at her house yesterday. What fun! I hope I can do this on a quilt.
So....a walking foot...an opportunity to try something new...I need to get something ready to quilt. Of course, that means buying fabric. I controlled myself and only bought what I needed to prepare these quilts for quilting. Here is the backing and binding I chose for the Disappearing Nine Patch. I love it. The blue backing has the soft, quiet feel of the quilt.


My other purchase was the back for the red and white quilt-a-long quilt. It was a bit more than I wanted to spend, but isn't it fun!
It's not enough fabric on its own, so I'll have to piece something to make it work. I think it will make the back just as interesting as the front. If I can get these two basted and ready...this is what I'll be doing this weekend. A trip to the farm and a weekend of quilting. So, for all you machine quilters out there...any hints and tips? I think I have an idea of how I might want to quilt the Disappearing Nine Patch, but I'm stumped on the red and white quilt-a-long quilt. I want to keep it simple, since I'm so new at this. Any thoughts?
Have a great weekend everyone. Hope the sun will be shining in your neck of the woods!