Background Work on Wholecloth Practice Quilt

This is a bit of fun. As this is for no particular purpose or reason I felt a bit freed up to try all sorts of things. It's easy to see that my quilting follows Patsy Thompson's love for hyperquilting.

I will mention again that I have got Patsy Thompson's DVD Feather set. If you want to learn how to quilt feathers I can highly recommend it...it is lovely to watch and packed with information. In one of those videos Patsy introduced hyperquilting...I think you either love it, like I do, or you don't like it. I got completely addicted to it and use it most of the time. I recently heard or read somewhere that you should not use in-lining in formal feathers...can't remember who said that or where this was, but I thought...here we go again, people trying to put restraints around what one should and should not do in quilting. I think you should do whatever you feel like with your quilt. After all, it's your quilt! In this piece my choice of colours is maybe a bit bright for me (looks like a smack in the face), but it's all good practice. Patsy also has a few classes on Craftsy where she demonstrates her skill. Another option, if DVDs is not your thing.

On a side note, I did attend my Handiquilter group and checked out my assumptions about the thread I am using (Magnifico from Superior), as we did talk mainly threads this month. To my surprise what I had been thinking and doing was 100% correct. I am dealing with a very strong thread which is normally used at high speeds, hence you need to crank up your bobbin tension to a level which then does not correspond with how bobbin tension is normally taught on all those YouTube videos. I was very pleased with myself, to say the least. Definitely gave me a confidence boost!

I now filled all the blue sections and am back stitching with the yellow thread which seems a bit easier anyway. Still got a fair way to go though. In-lined the featherette with yellow thread which produces a fair amount of thread build up. Not sure I like the combination of red and yellow, but that's what it is. Came out a bit messy as my featherette is just about lying on the circle, so that is something to watch out for if intending to in-line one of those.

Another shot of the compaction that is happening

I am using two layers of batting...thin cotton and some wool on top, hence the puff in the wreath.

Karin