WIP: Colour Adventure - Second Border

Progress...

Half of the border...Loved stitching this with the light thread. My stitching works out so much better this way.

Funny enough though, this is not exactly how I had visualised this border. I wanted something a bit more organic and playful, i.e. a less organised feather arrangement. It seems that I cannot be less consistent....I stitch close to the pre-drawn line and don't seem to venture out too much, hence doing a lot of backstitching to travel along the previous feather. I think this is for fear of stuffing it up and also becoming really inconsistent in shape and size. Sticking close to the previous plume shape produces this very even, elegant looking feather arrangement.

How funny is this...I think I will have to practice being a bit more free-flowing and less consistent to produce something a bit less organised.

In the end I stopped trying and continued with my more consistent approach (no point trying to force it...I think it will come with time and more practice). It does look nice and I am happy with my progress with the feathers so far. In terms of marking...yah, minimal... the way I like it. All I did was  draw the gentle curve in with my new flexible curve ruler (absolutely fantastic gadget) and off I went. I did draw in the first few feathers lightly to get me going on the right track, and again in the corner to keep this as consistent as I can, given that it is going to meet the feather from the other side. Also, every time, I felt I was getting off track, I just simply lightly drew a few plume shapes in and that seemed to get the brain back on track. The only other marking was half an inch on the outside of the border so as to not run the plume shapes into the seam allowance and to allow for a bit of breathing space all around. This sort of "assisted" method of freeform feathers works extremely well for me.

I might dress this up with some hyperquilting (see Patsy Thompson designs for some info on hyperquilting...just amazing!) inside the plumes. That could take some of the formality out...just not sure what thread colour to use for that.

Until next time, linking up to FMQ at the Freemotion Quilting Project where Leah talks about practice is never a waste of time. How true...if I think about how I laboured over my choices with the quilting on this one, her account on choosing designs was a bit of an eye opener...

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

More Feathers

Yep, this is shaping up to be the year of the Feather for me...

I have been spoilt with some feather DVDs from Patsy Thompson for my birthday recently. Have to say they are very good and I am getting a lot out of it. Only a quilter can sit there listening to the rattling of the sewing machine on a DVD and be completely mesmerized...much to the amusement of the rest of the family.

Here are a few samples I made...

Warm-up

 Warm-up was interesting. Just went for it without much thinking...some of my plumes got a bit too large. Probably pays to think that through a bit beforehand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next sample I gave it my best shot and thought about how I wanted the plumes to look like beforehand. This worked well...actually did not try to achieve a consistent look but concentrated on getting around the corner in an orderly way. Not that easy judging the size of the plumes while you are stitching them, probably could have gone a bit bigger on some on them. Also wonder how I would go with staying consistent if I did this across half of a border, and then placing a mirror image on the other half of the border. I guess there is only one way of finding out...

 

Yes, and I think I have been bitten by Patsy Thompson's need to fill her plumes with hyperquilting. Tried one of her examples of just stitching some lines into them (did not look that exciting initially) and was amazed with how this transformed the look of the feather. I love this effect. I used Polyester thread to stitch this feather and the orange thread on top of the white just about jumps out at you. Yes, definitely hooked.

Very happy with this....I am getting more confident in the quilting of feathers having done two feather borders recently, each using a different method of quilting the feathers. The freeform feather above has a playfulness about it that I like and probably hard to believe,  I find this almost more difficult to stitch than the ones were I needed to backtrack. All comes down to practice, I suppose.

Why am I doing this??? ....I want to be able to use this on my Colour Adventure quilt in the outer border and as previously mentioned I prefer to do as little marking as possible (yep, I will practice for hours just to avoid this). Nothing too fancy, just a nice free flowing feather arrangement around  the border. I am planning to put another feather arrangement in the yellow star in the middle (that one will be definitely marked), some filler in the coloured section....and beyond, I am not sure yet. Bit of a loose plan so far.




Looking at the picture now after several weeks, I am thinking that I should have made the black border larger....maybe that's it...there was always something that was not quite right with this. Will ponder on this for a while...this quilt has taken me way out of my comfort zone. It is too bright, too many colours and I am not sure how this will all work out.

Linking up to Anything Goes Quilt & Sew over at Stitch by Stitch and Let's Get Acquainted Link by Plum and June Hosted by Busy Bee Quilts

Karin