Practice, Practice, Practice

First of all, I would like to rescind previous derogatory comments about feathers in general as I am starting to find some variations which I am quite keen about.  This border from Judi Madsen is one of them.  The double circle (mine look like olives rather than circles, but that's another story) make for very smoothly flowing pebble fill.  I struggled a little on the feathers as this design requires making all the feathers in the same direction (i.e. top of the spine down) instead of alternate directions like most feathers (i.e. down on the left, up on the right).   I know that sounds like a silly difference but it really made a difference as I had to really, really think rather than just flow.  I am also working on a domestic machine so seeing where I'm going around the foot is different than with a long arm.  The little triangle spine is brilliant as it fills in any wonkiness of the feathers.  And clearly I am better at making triangles than swirls.

The other variation of Judi's design was this one.  Hers is a fill for a square which I adapted to fit this panel project.  It looks great from the front (red side).  My less than perfect swirls are evident on the contrasting yellow back.

I have to remember that washing this when I'm done will make is so all the imperfections just make for interesting texture.

That's my story.  I'm sticking with it.

More fills just for practice. These are bi-colored panels and the other half will be green.

I also tried some swirls inspired by LuAnn Kessi.  I'm undecided how I feel about them at this time.  I ran out of bobbin and went to bed rather then winding a new one.

I keep plugging away on the USA hand quilting.  Here it is from the back.  The nearer sections have the between the block fill done, which I will have to go back and do on the earlier blocks.   And here's a close up.  I'm maintaining a progress widgit on the right sidebar.  I'm now done with 33 of the 50 blocks.

More Practice

I've been practicing new fills.  This is a swirl and feather inspired by  Judi Madsen.

My book did arrive in yesterday's mail and I'm off to try some other FMQ ideas.

Same thing as above, but with more paisley fillers.  This was also the point in the practice where I ran out of the yellow variegated thread that I was trying to use up from the stash.  Unfortunately, there's little yellow thread in the stash so I was off to the store.

I figured that if thread wasn't on sale at JoAnne's, I at least had a couple 50% off coupons.  Guterman was 40% off, but selections had already been picked through for what I wanted.  Shockingly, the cut counter was NOT swamped and calicos were 50% off, so I stocked up on yellows.

Yes, I know I'm on a fabric diet.  But I've been working so diligently on the FMQ practice panels that I'm nearly out of stash yellow, which is what is the back of each panel.

I've been grabbing panels to practice on that are from throughout the finished quilt that I have planned.  My hope is that it will help spread out different techniques as well as what I hope is progress in my technique.  But I did want to see if my joining technique was going to work, so here are panels 1,2,&3 joined.

The overall design for this practice quilt came to me 2 years ago.  You can read about it at this post if you're interested. 

Practice

I've been practicing a feather fill for squares that I saw on Kay Bell's blog, and decided to give it a try on fabric but my practice panel is a rectangle.  Could be worse.  Could be better.  Definitely organic.

One of my UFO's, waiting to be quilted is the Puce 'Treuse Goose (On Spruce).  I bought this fabric on a whim, just to make a quilt with that name.  (The backing has a pine branch fabric.)

After a couple doodling attempts on paper, I worked out this quilting design.  The feathers will be on the geese (ha ha ha)  with the connecting sections of v-shaped circles.

Note to self - don't like variegated thread for pebbles as it creates random weird bold circles.

And finally, in an attempt to like (and be good at) feathers, I've been trolling the internet looking for examples that I like.  Judi Madsen came to my rescue with this swirl and feather filler.   According to Amazon, my copy of her book Quilting Wide Open Spaces should be arriving today, so I may have some other practice pieces to share by the end of the weekend.

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.

FMQ Feathers

I have issues with feathers.

My issue is that I don't like traditional feathers.

So I don't make them.

Therefore, when I think I might want to make some, I have no experience and they look like $#@&.

I spent some time trying to work out the flow.

There was A LOT  of erasing while I tried to sort out how to shift directions.

I did the first practice pass with an orange pen, trying to get into a rhythm.  I figured out that my groove is top to bottom and left to right.

It helps me to identify the spot on the inside curve where I need a "circle" to wrap the opposite direction feathers around.

For the next pass, I used a green pen and tried to focus only on the "spine" and focused on where things connected, letting the outer part flow on it's own.

I tried marking the spine of my practice block with a wash away marker but it wasn't noticeable on the dark green, so I used a yellow pencil on that side.

My final outcome was this.

When I was stitching it, everything felt smooth and amazing.  I tried to focus on ending the feathers in the same location to make heart shapes.

On close inspection, 30% of those feathers are still a little wonky.  And my effort to make a "stem" spine on the right just simply looks bad.

Oh well.

Progress.