Another Charity Quilt Finish

Here we are again...a few weeks have passed. I have been somewhat unwell with a prolonged virus which just will not ease off. It comes and goes...nothing serious but annoying as it keeps hanging around.

I started and finished another charity quilt in stops and starts. Did another edge-to-edge design on it called 'Billowy' from Hermione Agee as this was a smallish lap size quilt.. 

Some better shots

Just really simple which enhances the modern look and feel of this quilt. I had originally bought this design for the frame set up but did not get around using it on any of my quilts so this was a good opportunity to have a look at what this looks like on a quilt. Definitely a favourite. Easy to do and a bit larger so that you can cover some ground as you move along.

Apart from that I also started looking at a major update on my Affinity drawing program and promptly started playing around again. This is not a bad thing (although time consuming) as I need to keep using the program otherwise I keep forgetting some of the functions. Spent a lot of time drawing out feather wreaths for my upcoming workshop using a 12 point circular graph set up that I want to use to take people through how to draw (and stitch) their own wreath.

While doing this, designed this little beauty (amongst other things)

My feather wreath turned out nice

This will be in the handout with steps on how to get there with minimal marking. Just on the sideline if readers are interested in computer drawing: the beauty of the program is that I drew one circle and one feather shape, then entered the appropriate values in the multiplier function (with a command to circle around the center) and then you just use a slider to enter the number of plumes you want and the plumes just travel around the circle. If you get it right it closes up seamlessly, like magic. Haha...yes, that took a moment! The beauty of drawing this out on the computer is, of course, that I can adjust my wreaths to any size, make multiple identical copies for tracing, use it as a blueprint for different feather arrangements in the wreath, use it without the center feathers etc.

This little exercise was really helpful in preparing for the workshop, i.e. how to explain how to go about stitching out a wreath freehand. Like what guidelines and little helping marks to use, where to start and what to watch out for to get that closure right. I don't know about you but I find it not so easy to just 'wing' it and hope for the best in terms of the closure of the wreath. While it often works with a bit of fudging, more often than not I end up with an unusually thin or big feather plume at the closure point. Not a biggie, but unsightly when you stitch this out on a solid fabric block and really the aim is to stitch it out once and that's it. Will be interesting to see how the participants of the group manage this.

I keep forgetting to take pictures of the learning in our workshops (probably because I talk too much) 😆Hopefully this time I can capture a few shots.

Karin