Free motion Quilting - Maple Leave Runner

I took the Craftsy course Continuous Line Quilting by Ann Peterson.  I decided to try my new skills on this Maple Leaves Runner quilt. 

This course has excellent information one how to free motion quilt without having to mark your quilting lines.

A pattern is available for this quilt in my online store.

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I first stitch in the ditch between all the blocks.  Next I stitched in the ditch between the inner border and background.  Next I stitched in the ditch between the inner and outer border.

Then I free motion stitch around each of the leaves.

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I used a freemotion leaf for the plain blocks.  I stitched the leaf and then stitch the stem so I ended at the end of the leaf so I could start the next leaf.  I did find that I got cornered and could not always get easily to the next free space. 

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Next time I would sometimes just stitch a partial stem so I would end up at the start of the leaf and then stitch to the next space.

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This leaf freemotion technique worked really well in the border.  It was easy to stitch the leaf and stitch the stem to get to the next leaf.  I drew a few leaves to start with however I found that I didn't need to do that.

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For the corners, I tried to end the leaf end in the center of the corner so that I could turn the quilt and start the next leaf.

I was very happy with the border.  The plain block needs some practice to adapt this leaf quilting pattern.

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