Progress on the Feather Border

First of all...thanks for the many comments on my last post about making my own feather stencil. Very much appreciated! Please make sure though that you are not a No Reply blogger...I had a few comments that I could not reply to.

I am making progress on my Whole Cloth quilt. Bit of a slow progress, but progress it is!

The stencil I made with the Golden Threads Quilting paper works great. As it is made from my own drawing the stitching flows nicely even when some of the chalk lines are becoming faint as I am used to the way that I draw them. This left me with a nice and even looking border and the right size for each plume to do some in-lining with a different thread colour later on. None of this is exact...when quilting along, I do not always follow the line exactly, hence the individual plumes on each side are not exact mirror images of each other. They don't really have to be...what counts here is the overall impression of consistency as I stitched them from the middle out. Very happy with the result and slowly will work my way around the border. 

A bit closer - same quilt under different light

Here are some tips for feather quilting:

- when you are drawing feathers, draw them the way you would stitch them...this will instantly show you when something does not flow right and will make it easier when you are stitching them.

- I have found that taking the plunge and putting feathers in borders is one of the best ways to learn. Even if you only do a small project, stitching feathers all around will mean that you are doing the same shape hundreds of times, over and over again...one of the most effective ways to get the shape imprinted on your brain. 

- I do not watch my stitch length, but concentrate more on the shape. With practice in FMQ you will eventually arrive at a stitch length that is right for you

- not every plume will look great...happens all the time. I don't sweat about it, but just keep going, as it will most likely not stand out at all.

- find your most comfortable way of stitching feathers. I use the backtracking method most of the time. When backtracking along the length of the plume I try to aim to stitch directly next to each stitch...the funny part is as I am aiming for that, I usually end up stitching back directly back over each stitch. In contrast, when I try to concentrate to go back in the same stitch, I do anything but that. If you find backtracking too bothersome, leave a little gap...looks just as good.

- I find it easiest to stitch feathers towards me. In this border though, I started in the center, so when I do the plumes to the right side of the center, this is not practical, as I have most of the bulk under the machine. In that case I start off with stitching the plumes away from me and then move slowly but surely to stitching them sideways. Trial and error works best here and I have accepted that this occasionally will lead to some wonky shapes.

- I often stitch feathers without the gloves... it gives me more control over the stitching
- take it slow and get into a rhythm. Feathers is not something you can hurry along ...I set my machine to the slowest speed and keep the speed fairly constant. I rely a lot on the sound of the machine and usually can hear when my rhythm is not right ( this sounds odd, a bit hard to explain).

Linking up to Anything Goes Linky Party at Stitch by Stitch which is hosted today by Diana from Red Delicious Life
Also linking with Amy's Free Motion Quilting Adventures as she is featuring feathers for the month of July.

Karin

WIP: Colour Adventure Finished

I am a bit busy at the moment with various things, home and workwise, hence have not posted that much lately. Planning for a trip away in July, so am making a concentrated effort to get some things done.

This quilt is finally finished, except for the binding which I am currently attaching. Also a bit of a saga as I tried to do the binding a little bit differently this time (trying to be super neat...well that backfired big time. Had to take the whole binding off and re-straighten my quilt. Lesson learnt: stick with what you know/let go of that damned perfectionism!)

Here are some close ups of the quilting

Use of taupe thread over several colours - worked brilliantly!

Centre design - a bit more loft would have been good

Surrounding swirl design

Border designs and In-lining of the second border

Corner Treatment

The back looks great

Well, this certainly has been an adventure and a half...I must say I have learned heaps from this, first and foremost...Patience! This was not a quick piece for me and I struggled at times with my own impatience to get it finished. I had a very definite view in my head about how I wanted this to look and struggled to let go of some ideas that just would not have worked.

Overall, I am really happy with this and proud of my little achievement here but also a bit disappointed...unfortunately, the batting (bamboo) I used created bearding like there was no tomorrow and this was a real distraction while quilting but also impacts on the overall quality of the quilt obviously. Definitely will not be using that batting again.

I think I might be doing a Whole Cloth quilt next....just feathers ...that would keep me happy.

Linking up to Leah Day's FMQ Friday.

Karin

WIP: Colour Adventure Almost finished

Well, the main quilting is done. Can't believe how long this takes. I like the way it turned out, warts and all...

 
 



 Trying to photograph the back...it is astounding how this animal comes out from resting to sit on quilts just when you are ready to take a photograph.

Here is the back ...might hang it up this way. Love it.

 I was considering jazzing it up a bit with some unobtrusive hyperquilting. This could be fun or a complete disaster. So I quilted inside the plumes in the second border with the purple thread used in the inner border. Given that this is such a colourful quilt I did not want to overload this...I was hoping that the purple in-lining might just take some of the stark light thread a few notches down.

As you can see you can hardly see the in-lining (such is the power of light thread). A higher weight thread would have been better, I think. Well, never mind...maybe next time. This is just for me and the in-lining is part of practising the plume shape. I cannot recommend in-lining your plume shapes enough because there is simply no better way to do the same shape over and over again. When this is finished I will have done the plume shape and the movement, rhythm and speed that goes with it about 800 times.

Initially I thought about quilting inside the plumes of the yellow star, but I am having second thoughts here as you would only really see the hyperquilting...now that might look a bit odd on the light background.

Oh, decisions, decisions...

Linking up to Anything Goes Linky Party at Stitch by Stitch

Karin

Same old WIP

Working away on my Colour Adventure quilt. I am now at the first border (hopefully this is not getting too boring for people - same old quilt week after week).

Again quilting with blend-in thread...I noticed with this design that I had some white little dots showing up as I was using white in the bobbin. Probably showed up more on this design than on the others before as this design has more variation in speed once you get going.

My tension is definitely right and normally I do not worry about a few white dots here and there. However this was definitely starting to distract me as I was trying to concentrate on the design. I am finding that in general, any fluff or loose threads etc...influence how well I stitch...obviously I am easily distracted.


After a while I remembered the "Magic Bobbin Washers" in my draw. I originally bought these some years ago for my previous machine to help with tension issues.  I do not usually use them in my current machine as I rarely have tension issues these days...nevertheless I put one of them into the bobbin case for stability to see whether it would help with the pesky white dots...and yes, definitely made a difference. Still have the occasional one, but not to the same extent as before (4-5 stitches in a row, depending on direction stitched). Instantly my stitching got better, as I did not have that distraction and could concentrate on getting the design going.

Definitely stitching with light thread on that black second  border. While the blend-in designs look good, I really prefer the light thread on the dark fabric. Can't help myself. Just like the look of it and also find it easier to stitch on dark fabric.

Not sure what feathers to stitch in the outer border...might have to look at it for a while.

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

Karin

Feather Borders

I am continuing my practice of various feather designs...

Several other things have fallen by the wayside...need to still complete the write up of the pattern of my baby quilt, do the binding on my table runner, write up a new pattern that I have ready to go, continue on....and so it goes. Also have run behind in the Blockbase Sew Along due to illness when block  #10 was due and just have not had the time to pick it up again.

FMQ requires practice, practice and more practice...you read and hear this a lot. What does that actually mean and how do you go about this? I was thinking this weekend that it is more than that, i.e. it is purposeful practice that will eventually help you to master this skill. When pondering about this I thought back to how this more purposeful practice started for me. About 2 years ago I was visiting the local quilt show and again standing in front of one of those truly amazing works of art...a FMQ wholecloth quilt of enormous proportions...all done on the domestic sewing machine. I could do some basic FMQ at that stage...some stippling, some loop and leaf designs, but that was it. While admiring this I began to think that yes, this is possible and no, I did not need a more fancy machine or the seductive Handi Quilter machine Sweet Sixteen (that I soooo would love to have).

The problem for me was that I would spent up to 6 months on creating a quilt (alas, I also have to work in my spare time) and when it came to the quilting I would revert back to what was comfortable, i.e. the stippling or similarly simple designs. Any attempt to do something different required more skill than I had at that time and even if I practiced a different design, after 6 months  I did not have the flow or rhythm to see that through. Usually I ended up pretty discouraged going back to what I knew would work. It occurred to me that I needed to take the whole idea of practice to a new level. It required more than just a bit of practice here and there or even attending the occasional workshop...it needed to be the purposeful building of your repertoire of designs and capabilities.

Initially I was going to set myself tasks to complete to guide my practice, but luck had it and I saw Leah Day's FMQ Along Wednesdays on the Freemotion Quilting Project which was run for the entire year on a weekly basis. I participated almost every week and within 2-3 months saw the difference...no more tension issues, far less hesitation...the improvement was actually quite amazing. I could just sit down at the machine and go...

Also started my feather practice last year....very tentative to start with but eventually got there. This year I am focussing on feathers...for this purpose I got some of Patsy Thompson's Feather DVDs which I am currently going through. I find  that DVDs and videos work well for me as I can go back and re-watch particularly tricky parts (have a look around the internet, there are heaps of free YouTube videos available).

Well, I continued on my border practice piece....this got a bit involved as I did end up practising the mirrored feather wave I had stitched the other day. I was just too curious of how I would go with trying to mirror the plumes on either part of the centre...probably should have continued with something a bit simpler.

 

 

My stitching and the shapes turned out a bit wonky as I could not concentrate on too many things at once. The mirroring of the plumes worked fine as I had worked out beforehand an approximate way to go about it, i.e. start smaller, than getting bigger and then going smaller again to go around the curve. As I am working in a border the outer edge provided a guide of how far to swing out, so this was all good. Funny thing though...the brain made the same 'mistake' each time I went around the outer curve. The mirroring in the centre was a bit trickier...I thought I had done this quite well, but when I went around to fill them, realised that only two of them actually match...so if I was to do this again, I would have to pay a bit more attention to this, but overall... first attempt...I am impressed. To get around the trickiness of the centre I would lightly mark them in next time, I think.

The second border is a nice one...I am thinking about using this for my quilt...it has that simple elegance about it and was quite fast to stitch all around. Also did the loopy border for those more narrow borders...find this very challenging, although looks alright in the picture.

This was a lot of fun to stitch...I think it's time to go onto the quilt.

Linking up to Anything Goes Linky Party at Stitch by Stitch and

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced to show that I am actually finishing some of my many WIPs.

Karin

WIP Wednesday: Progress

Made some progress this week. Here is my table runner

Will post more detailed FMQ shots about this one on Friday. While nice, it lacks a bit of planning, i.e. I should have thought more about the quilting of the actual blocks. Border is beautiful but I was left wondering what to do with the blocks (which ultimately produced some unevenness in the quilting...hmm, maybe I should have used a filler design over the blocks...

And here is me hard at work on my baby quilt. Have decided on a loopy - loop design . In order to keep me focussed I had to have my drawing of the design next to me the whole time just to refer to the scale of the design and also to check every now and then in which direction I was going.  Loops are easy to stitch, however I don't find it that easy to fill up an area with any level of consistency. I am aiming for a scale of about an inch over a 3 - 4in area, so have to have a fair bit of speed to make those more sweeping kinds of movements. Very easy to then get lost in it all and end up too close or between some loops. So far, so good...half way through

Linking up to  WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced. (guest hosted by Claire from Sewing Over Pins)

Karin