Working on various things

Before I sent the table topper off last week I took a picture of the back with the label on it. Small projects like this one are really fun to quilt on the Juki and I have some larger projects lined up already that I'm planing on quilting soon. My main problem is that I'm making the quilting process more complicated than it has to be, because I want to find the "perfect" pattern for each block. Well, with several sampler block quilt tops that is taking me quite some time and I've come to the conclusion that I just need to learn to relax and just go for it. lol The one's that are causing me problems are my quilts anyway, so who really cares how I quilt them, other than me? ;o)

I didn't want the quilt police to get me for not having equal quilting on the entire surface, so I added some echo quilting around the heart center I worked on the other day. Since I wanted the heart motif to remain more dominant I echo quilted it using plain white thread.
Right now I'm in the mood to just get things FINISHED, so I think I'll just sew a "flip" backing on without a zipper and no binding around the pillow. OK, I know there must be some formal and correct term for my pillow method, but I can't think of it right now, so if you're wondering what I'm talking about, I'll try to briefly describe it. I'll lay two overlapping pieces of fabric with right side down on the right side of the "top" (the two back pieces will have finished edges), then sew around the entire thing and just turn the whole thing right side out and voila, finished pillow case! :o)
I'll try to get that done today and if so, I'll post a picture later.

Here's yet another American Hero top that Michelle is helping me work on - a simple Rail Fence top. While I do all the cutting and ironing, Michelle sews the strips for the rail fence together.Then I piece the center and put the borders on. I just got done putting the top together and will try to go out to buy some batting and backing for it next week to finish the quilt.
Michelle started working on more Rail Fence strips, but I thought we should try another layout. So I was tracing, fusing and button hole stitching some heart blocks and the result so far is below. Michelle still has a few more strips to sew to make the top larger, but so far I really like it. The border is going to be similar again to the top above if I have enough fabric.