Free Motion Quilt Challenge - Leaves

SewCalGal is hosting a Free Motion Quilt Challenge.  Since I make a lot of quilts and will never be able to afford a longarm and since I'm tired of quilting straight lines or stipples I decided to take the plunge. I'm making my samplers into hotpads so the inner layers consist of insulbright and terrycloth.  Above is my first attempt. I kept getting thrown off by the leaf pattern in the fabric so this doesn't look too hot. In fact some look like bananas instead of leaves but, hey, a girl's got to start somewhere. Good thing the thread (Coat's and Clark's machine quilting) blends in. I'll give it to someone who doesn't see well for Christmas. 

And this was my second attempt. I was getting a little better. BTW, my hotpad size is about 8.5x9.5 so I was trying to make the leaves small. A couple of times I left a big blank spot and didn't know how to get back over to it so had to cut thread and try to connect the vines. Good thing these leaves don't show up well either. 

And, with my third attempt I was getting better still. At least most of these look like leaves and not bananas or  globs.  Now, I just need to cut some binding, sew it on, and I've got a couple of Christmas presents made for the Christmas box. 

To see how everyone else has been doing visit the Jan. linky party going on at SewCalGal's blog. 

Now, I just need to piece the back for this "Buckeye Beauty" flimsy and I'll be quilting it with leaves, I hope. This was made with HSTs and 4 patches in fall colors swapped on BlockSwappers Yahoo group.  So, leaves seem to fit with a fall theme. I'm going to give it a try. And, if I do well, I'm going to quilt my bird themed snowball and nine patch with leaves too.