Perfectionist...Not me!

Continued working on my feather arrangement. I had in mind to put a frame around the feather wreath. Obviously I over-estimated my skill level. When I drew the frame in with my flexible curve ruler, I came to the realisation that there was no way that I was going to get a match on either side, in fact I had not even figured out what exactly I wanted this to look like...did I want more free flowing feather, different sizes, different shapes or did I want a more uniform arrangement...and how big?

Inititally I tried to lightly draw some feathers in but soon realised that I would not be able to re-create that on the other side, not freehand anyway. Out came the paper...pity, I should have photographed the many attempts that I produced on paper yesterday. This was quite hilarious as I got to a point of perfectionist delirium, I reckon...not uncommon for me so I had to take a break to get back to reality.

After a bit of a break I made some decisions first, i.e. I went for a more uniform approach and also decided on a proximate height and size, then did my drawing...and presto, that worked.

After this I did what I had done the other day (see the post HERE for how I marked the feather wreath) and drew the design on my Golden thread paper and stitched through it with a bigger needle on my unthreaded machine. Then I used the Quilt Pounce and lightly transferred the design onto the quilt.

Very pleased with the result. The first photo is a bit touched up...the colour  does not photograph well

Half of the corner arrangement

Matching Middle Section

While I could have tried to do this freehand there is no way I would have achieved this level of mirroring and given that this is going to frame the wreath all around I think it is important to look more uniform than not.

Also, next time I might try to spray baste my quilt. The pins are continually in the way and for the marking of course I had to take whole sections out...not ideal. My batting is NuWool Batting, an Australian product...a bit of loft, but very nice and soft, easy to work with and no bearding!

Anyway, six more to go...

Linking up to FMQ Friday over at the Freemotion Quilting Project.

Karin