Lines Can Be Tricky

Started on my Bethanne Nemesh wall hanging. First step was to stitch blocks of wavy lines across the little quilt top (approx. 33in x 21.5in).

Easier said than done. I can imagine this to be effortless on a longarm machine...you just glide your machine over and you are done! Well, not so with a DSM. The machine is right in front of my nose, so even having a nice flat set up is of no great help as I cannot see beyond the machine. And while this would work for just one line, it would be difficult for several lines next to each other, as I just would not be able to see. Should maybe practice this.

So I looked in my tool box...what could I use to make the job easier? Remembered that I have the Sensormatic Echo foot

Gave that a go...and discovered that I am very much out of practice with this foot. In order to get it to glide across the surface, you need to have some speed, so on the lowest speed setting you need to depress the foot pedal all the way down (while at the same time watching where you are going) in order to get the gliding motion. Not used to that at all! Usually I start my stitching slow and gather speed as required. While you can also do this with this foot, when you are very slow it makes this annoying clunking sound...very irritating! Anyway, I did manage to get a grip on that and completed my first block of lines, only to realise that this was much too even (even with varying the width). This is actually not what I wanted for this quilt top.

So back to marking some lines on the top...I did this very loosely with an air erasable pen on the lighter fabric and some soap on the darker fabric, changed my foot back to the 6D Dynamic  Freemotion foot and stitched them out following my lines more or less. Afterwards I was thinking that I probably should have done this in the first place. You can see where I used the echo foot on the third block of lines...nice, but just too orderly.

Lines are done

As you can see there are some open spaces in the lines blocks...these will be filled with some FMQ later on. The spaces between the lines blocks will now be filled with some feathers a la Bethanne Nemesh, i.e. spineless, freeflowing, different types of feathers. This will be interesting. I think I might begin with a 'normal' type of feather first and then do the last three following Bethanne Nemesh method, weaving in different feather shapes as I go along.

Need to settle on a thread colour next...would like to use something light, maybe even different colours across the lot. Unsure...too many choices, as usual.

Linking up to Let's Bee Social over at Lorna's Sew Fresh Quilts

Karin