2017 Finish Along Second Quarter Goal List

My list for the second quarter is very small and includes the following:

#1 Wholecloth
Ready to start, the design process took forever

Starting the marking only to decide that I needed to re-draw some aspects of my design...just was not happy with it and another one of those times when I thought that you should never rush this process. Starting from scratch...

#2 Thousand Pyramids quilt
Absolutely no progress made on that one in the first quarter, so hoping to at least complete a few more units in the 3 months period

Well, I actually doubt that I will be able to finish any of this, but here is hoping that I will have done most of the Wholecloth and maybe some more of those triangle units.

Linking up to Eleven Garden Quilts with my list. The linky will be open until the 8/4/17 and the Finishes linky opens on 25/6/17.

Karin

Second Finish for the FAL 2017 First Quarter

My second finish for the Finish Along 2017 is done.  My original goal list can be found HERE.  You can read all about the FAL2017 by clicking on the button below

I am so pleased with my progress. Did not think I would finish another quilt before the deadline was up!

This wall hanging was started last year following a class with Bethanne Nemesh called 'Feather Faster'. I really enjoyed this class even though it was just basically drawing out feathers, but we were left with 'homework' in the form of this cute little wall hanging to try out some of the feathers. This was great fun but took a while to complete as I had started to densely fill in the background. Underestimated this a bit.

But here it is 'Birds On a Wire', designed by Bethanne Nemesh

Close up

Texture Galore

Yes, went a bit overboard with the background fillers but the texture is amazing! Also discovered that by outlining the bottom feathers with the lighter orange thread, it really made it pop...should have done this also in the  feathers above with some white thread...that would have been good.  Well, live and learn...😺

The wall hanging measures 32" x 28" and is exclusively quilted with Aurifil 50/2 thread. Needless to say this was a lot of fun!

Linking up to the Finish Along 2017 over at Eleven Gardens Quilts for the Quarter 1 Link Up

Karin

First Finish for the FAL 2017 First Quarter

My first finish for the Finish Along 2017 is ready.  My original goal list can be found HERE. I probably should have called the heading 'my first and probably only finish ' for the first quarter. You can read all about the FAL2017 by clicking on the button below

I took the completed quilt for a walk. There is an old wooden picnic set up in our surrounds which is ideal for quilt photography.

The quilt is lap size using Moda charm squares (A Field Guide) which are set around a smaller darkbrown/green square which in turn is framed by some beige rectangles.

This quilt took a very long time to complete (I think I constructed this in 2015 some time)...I underestimated the time it would take to FMQ this and got sick of it fairly quickly as there was a lot of marking involved for the continuous line design in the squares.

For readers who follow my blog you would remember that I got the new Clarity Ruler foot by Accents by Design in the beginning of the year...what a Godsend...this new foot worked brilliantly for me and I was able to finish the line design with just 5 little marks to align my ruler. This was great and I was able to finish the line designs off in a relatively short period of time and then proceed to quilt the narrow lines in the surrounding rectangles. The tight lines were a hassle (what was I thinking!) and I must admit they nearly finished me off, but here it is...finally done!

Very happy with the end result

Onto the next project...

Linking up to the Finish Along 2017 over at Eleven Garden Quilts for the Quarter 1 Link Up

Karin

What a drag!

I have been missing in action largely due to my Field Guide Quilt. As I have listed it with the FAL 2017 I felt that I needed to continue on this UFO.

Let me tell you...this was the most un-enjoyable exercise. I do not know what possessed me but I had decided to adorn this quilt with some more intense quilting, i.e. lines in every beige rectangle. While that seemed all very do-able, it nearly finished me off.

Here are the little rectangles...looking pretty harmless...

Some lines quilted...the problem was that I had gazillions of those rectangles! While persevering I must say...this was not enjoyable nor did it increase my skill level...in fact I started to become fairly sloppy in doing the lines because I just had enough. Nearly put the quilt away again because it was severely putting me behind in some of my other endeavours. Finally realised that I actually do not like quilting pieced quilts at all. Maybe a bit of a motif here and there or some allover design, but not this somewhat brainless repetition. For me, that just about killed all inspiration or enjoyment in finishing this quilt.

While I love FMQ, I love the blank canvass of a Wholecloth. Even though you also do a fair bit of repetition in a Wholecloth, it somehow feels different, as you are building a picture. This is missing for me in a pieced quilt, or maybe it was just this quilt. Nevertheless I forced myself to keep going, doing a few rectangles every night...looking at the quilt, I did not feel that I was making any progress at all! I started counting the rectangles in order to assure myself that I actually was making progress, but even that did not help as it appeared to be endless. In the end I gave up and just blindly stitched these rectangles at night...what a pain this was...
but, here it is, FINISHED!! ...only the binding left!

It is just a lap quilt and the work involved was obviously deceiving.

This will be my only finish for the FAL2017 First Quarter as I am now seriously behind in everything else. Washed some fabric today though, itching to get going on another Wholecloth!

Karin