Camping with the girls - let the quilting begin

The quilt is pinned - rather heavily I might add.  I am a very methodical pinner.  For each block I determine the best way to pin considering how it will be quilted.  It then follows that all blocks will be pinned the same way.  There are 11 pins in the star blocks, 13 in the Delectable Mountain blocks, and 16 in the four-patch blocks.  I use a lot of pins because the first step will be to quilt the long vertical and horizontal seams between the blocks and I want to keep the intersections of each group of 4 blocks as square as possible.

It took a long time to upload that picture.  I had to eat cookies while waiting.  Anyway...

I am using one of my favorite battings, Quilters Dream Cotton, in Request (thinnest) weight and Aurifil 50/2 thread in tan (color number 2325).  I put a new Schmetz Microtex sharp needle (80/20 size) in the sewing machine because there are thick seams in some places.  (Normally I use Schmetz Microtex Sharp 70/10 with the 50/2 thread.)  The stitch length is set on 2.3.  The walking foot is on.  I am ready to start.

I am at the stage where I think this quilt is going to be great.  At some point (generally around the half-way point) it is inevitable that I will despair and think it is not going to be great because one thing or another didn't turn out as well as I hoped.  At that point you just have to forge ahead and work through the despair.  As I hit the home stretch, I am usually very happy with the quilt.