The Vortex...unbelievable

Well, I cannot believe the Vortex has not swallowed me up alive!!  I have been consumed by this most amazing quilt for a couple weeks, now.  It was made by a new friend from Florida, named Julie.
She hand-pieced the whole vortex, and it was truly an amazing  project.  I had to do lots of thinking before I even started it.  How to quilt it???  How to keep it even, and not end up with puckers and pleats...oh, my...well, my hubby came up with a good idea and between the two of us we got it figured out.  I am going to post a few photos of how I basically did finally get it on the long-arm and then quilt it.  Thanks to Julie, I had a whole new thinking experience  to problem solve...I love to figure out how to do difficult quilts....even tho it may be scarey..yikes!!
I am also baby-sitting Cinda Lou.  She came yesterday and spent the night.  She practically sits on my feet as I am piecing...what a nice dog!  She is soooo sweet. 
Well, I am making plans to teach quilting again at  Smith Owen Sewing Center in Grand Rapids in October.  That should be great fun...we had a blast last time.  I hope some of you will be able to take the class.
In the mean-time, I will get back to the studio and finish stitching around the edge of the big Vortex, before it sucks me into the abyss of  UFO's!   PS....also working on a copy of Freddy's quilt..it is nearly finished...just working on the last few flying geese units...it is pretty wild.  Have a great day...

PPS....we celebrated our 48th wedding anniversary yesterday...how is it possible???We have known each other 51 years...wow.....my hubby has surely been a good sport with all my messes and projects these 48   years...ha....Judy

In the pictures...top picture was when I laid out the top on a table and added the pieced vortex circle...I had to get myself organized  for the quilting.  I then marked with pins inside the circle the width of the last row at the outer edge.
Then, I cut out the center of the  white top...that was so I didn't have so much thick fabric to deal with, and the quilt would lay flatter...the vortex would actually be against the batting.
Speaking of batting, who would guess it would be so hard to find a piece of white cotton batting in king size....I finally found some,   Dream Cotton....it worked just fine.( I had run out of white in my stash of batts.)  

I finally ended up pinning the back to the long-arm as usual.  Then I added the batting,  floated the top which by now had a huge hole cut into it...like a giant Krispy Creme  glazed donut!   I loved glazed donuts....Then I simply floated the pieced vortex over the whole overlapping as evenly as possible....WOW....it WORKED....  Well, now I am ready to piece...oh, I did use some 505 spray to hold things a bit, and a few pins...then I had to crank the whole thing to the middle so I could start there and work my way out...didn't want any puckers on this masterpiece....that worked like a dream too....I simply ditched and stitched a swirly line...very simple so the vortex got all the attention....I did not applique the vortex to the background first.  I was afraid that it might stretch and end up with puckers ....which it did not by this system.  So, now I am stitching down around the edge of the vortex after the fact...worked out great...this info is for any of you who think you might want to try this quilt.....just don't get sucked into the vortex....................ooooohhhhhh.....here I go!!