Decent Feathers

I had a weekend of small victories on the WIP front.

As for feathers...by jove, I think I've got it!  Two bits of advice that I picked up on line that helped are 1) making the feathers smaller  2) spend a lot of time drawing them on paper before going to the fabric.

I also discovered that the amount of fabric to hold on to makes a difference as well.  The outer edges of this practice panel are less impressive than this center section.

I have 27 state blocks quilted.

I had been doing a row or two of echo stitching on each block, but leaving the connecting bits to finish later.  I am now pretty comfortable with how the overall flow of the quilt is going to go and I've been adding the fill as I go.

I learned on my last quilt with wool batting that manipulating the distance between quilting  creates more textural difference than with cotton or bamboo batting.  I am using that to my advantage.

I finally got serious about organizing my HST project by arranging 10 red and 10 white squares in piles that I can grab and throw in my purse to work on anytime I have a spare moment.  I had a total panic moment when I discovered that I was nearly out of white-on-white fabric. (I buy it on sale in 6-10 yard pieces since I use it for everything.)  Fortunately, I found a couple big pieces that were in "project" boxes.  336 HST finished, 600 prepped.

   Speaking of which, I've managed to reorganize some project boxes.  I moved all the red batiks that I've been collecting for some undecided project in with about 1/2 the green batik fat quarters that were for a leaf motif quilt I haven't gotten around to designing.   When I found the rogue white-on-whites, I prepped 10 squares for the Benjamin Biggs quilt.   They are all living happily together in my circa 1969 Groovy Suitcase.

While I have successfully avoided buying any fabric for months, I have already spent $21 this week on needles.
The good news is that I finally found the perfect combination for quilting this quilt.

A traditional length quilting needle (on the right) is perfect for making 1-2 stitches at a time.  It needs to be very sharp since there are many seams go go through, not to mention the "paint" on the white background.  The coated Coats & Clark quilting thread I had in the stash is thicker than standard threads, so my solution is the Clover Black Gold size 10.

A sturdy applique needle (10 or 11 depending on the brand) is great for the long straight sections.  I can load 4-5 stitches on at a time, which keeps the lines significantly straighter.

USA Quilting 1

I got my least favorite part of the quilt process done yesterday - the sandwiching of the layers.

I was going to use a white backing, but the fabric I had available was white-on-white one of which was too thin and the other to painty. I opted for a red Ikea cotton sheet that I had already pre-washed, but needed ironing.

While I was wishing that I had some really white batting in the stash, it occurred to me that easy stitching was priority because of all the piecing.  I decided to use another piece of the wool I've been saving.  Interestingly, I think that the patterning of the white-on-white backgrounds stands up more with that cream colored layer.

I also discovered at this point that despite my careful stitching, the outer border has a little bit of a wave to it.  It's the result of having a bias edge of triangles all around the outside.  That problem should quilt out with this somewhat lofty batting.

I pin basted and started with a block near the center.

Windblown Square for North Dakota

Algonquin Square for Rhode Island.

After the outline stitching, I plan to do some echoing like this but in a way that merges with or flows to the stitching of the next block.

Third finished block for Sunday was Salt Lake City, for Utah (obviously).

 You may remember from a previous post on this quilt, that there are several rows that got off-grid from the others.  I can see now that there's going to be some clever stitching to camouflage the problem.

This block, for example is about 1/4" smaller than the one below it, but lined up on the right side. It's only noticeable when you try to line up the center points of each block.   A little "fool the eye" quilting and no one will notice.

William Morris Skirt?

The most recent sewing debacle  got me thinking that I really needed to start with some baseline of success.  This 6-panel skirt that I made this summer was my first attempt to make a muslin, adjust, and save the muslin as a new master pattern.

For some bizarre reason (unknown to me), I have started getting a fashion magazine called InStyle.  Ironic since I buy about 4 items of clothing per year.

I was flipping through it and ripping out inspirations when I saw this!  A QUILTED mini.

Even though I have great gams for my age, as a public service, I choose not to wear anything this short.

But the concept got me thinking.

I was imagining something quilted in  Baroque style leaves...

but then, it occurred to me that Michele Hill has some great William Morris style floral and leaves already in a handy format. In a book I happen to own.

And they are on my "to do" list.

This would be my FMQ template drafts of the front panels of my new skirt.


Only remaining debate: What color?

Dragonflies

Hour 7.  Quilting Dragonflies.

Quilting

I decided to set a timer and document progress in 1 hour increments.  Photos taken from the back as the matching thread on the front makes progress impossible to determine.

1 hour.

2 hours.

The hoop is 18" x 27"

3 hours.

Position 2 of the hoop.

4 hours.

Position 3.

5 hours.

The bird applique is about 33" square.
I'm guessing it will take me about 2 more hours to finish outlining the bird.


And non-quilters don't understand why it is that whenever they ask how much it would cost them for me to make them a quilt I just laugh hysterically and say "You could NEVER afford it."



I'm linking up with the Slow Bloggers...since quilting is a Slow process.

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WIPs on Wed Nov 14

I survived the mixed-method trapunto experiment...but did manage to break about 5 needles.  Which is weird since I can't even remember the last time I ever broke a needle while hand stitching.

Normally I have a stash of needles since I'm forever losing them.

I had to run to the LQS to replenish the stock.  I have to say I'm not too happy.  The Piecemaker's 12's are lovely to sew with, but the glazed quilting threads are too thick to fit through the eye.  The Clover big eye 12's are nice, but really what I would consider an 11.  I was excited to try the Roxanne 11's - cute case, but quite the price since there are 50.  I had all kinds of bad words to say once I started using them as they are what I would consider a chubby 10.   Seriously now...what's the point of a numbering system if it differs by brand???

I am very pleased with this center motif.  It is pieces and parts of Ester's Heart's Desire.  Actually, I think it's all from the same outer border.  The big flowers were in the center of each side and the 3 petaled flowers were draped over the basket handle.  Fill is just straight(ish) lines 3/8" apart.

I re-hooped to the section of leaves closest to the center.  It will also look familiar to many of you who know her design since it was block 2 of the quilt along.

This was me pondering how closely I really need to quilt everything to be happy.

I'm afraid that the correct answer is "very, very close".

The additional veining in dark green and curley-q's in pale green make me very happy.  I stitched the flower buds in magenta.  Funny how those details will be completely lost to anyone standing more than a foot away.  But still, I smile.

Quilting Again

I spent Saturday morning doing my least favorite quilt related task.  I sandwiched and basted a quilt for hand quilting.  That involves moving furniture and sitting on the floor for ages, making giant basting stitches to hold everything together.

This is the project for which I used the machine trapunto technique of basting the extra layer of batting in place using FMQ with a wash-away thread on top.  I posted about this technique on Celebrate Hand Quilting a couple weeks ago.

Unfortunately, I had used a new marking pencil that mostly brushed off during the FMQ process.

That tends to be a problem because I am not very good / accurate with FMQ so my basted flowers are all wonky.  I spent the day trying to reshape flowers as I stitched.


All things considered, it's turning out pretty well. And I'm starting to actually enjoy the fact that my floral motif is a little organic and not as symmetrical as it was planned.

This final photo really illustrates bad basting turning into nice quilting.