spotlight "I love this quilt because it is something that I worked on with my dear sister. She is a quilting expert and helped me tons!" - Michelle Barker Swoopers Michelle Barker of Riverton, Utah and her sister who lives in Oregon decided to work on a project together, communicating by text and email. They each chose to make Swoopers from March/April 2016 (No.168). Michelle loves machine applique, so this was a perfect pattern for her. She has collected black and white fat quarters for years and was happy to discover she also had quite a collection of red prints. This quilt held a lot of firsts for Michelle. It was the first quilt she completed start to finish by herself, including the free-motion quilting. It was also her Michelle's sister, Tammy Howell, with her version of Swoopers. first time making Flying Geese and a big quilt. Michelle said she struggled a bit with her machine and the quilting settings. She thought about pulling the bad quilting out and redoing it but it's her first time; she'll use this as a learning experience. Not everything has to be perfect. Michelle had so much fun working on this project with her sister. She said it was surprisingly easy to work together using pictures and texts. Editor's Note: We invite you to send us photos of quilts you have made using Quiltmaker patterns. Your quilt could be the next Spotlight! Send digital images to editor@quiltmaker.com. 88 Quiltmaker * July/August '17