March 2015 FMQ Challenge

Finished my pillow for the FMQ Challenge run over at Quiltshopgal. This months' expert is Patsy Thompson and I think I fall under Option 3. I did check out Patsy's blog re her pillow samples and basically this month I am just going to be a bit of a copy cat. For me it is very important that this challenge is about learning new things and seeing Patsy's trapunto and background filler I thought it was time that I gave this a go. See my previous blog post FMQ Fun about the process of getting the trapunto design onto the square and stitching it out incorporating the hyperquilting that Patsy is so well known for. As mentioned previously I did get Patsy's DVD series on feathers some time ago and cannot recommend it highly enough...I learned so much from that and also got somewhat addicted to the hyperquilting.

Anyway, here is my completed pillow, done again using the orange shot cotton with Aurifil 50/2 thread. You cannot really see the in-lining very well in this picture but it is there, done in yellow thread. The interesting thing is that I did not consider the middle section that much and once trapuntoed, realized that without in-lining in the middle this puffed out more than the surrounding feathers...maybe I should have put some in-lining in there as well...not sure.

Close up of the wreath taken outside in the sun showing the trapunto effect...very prominent indeed. I used Wool batting to do the trapunto because this is what I had. I think Polyester would have been nicer as this turned out a little bit firmer than expected as there was a lot of puff in there.

Love the background filler as it adds a lot of texture to the overall piece without being overpowering and is very forgiving to stitch out. Probably need a bit more practice to get used to the way I stitch this...got a bit of a rhythm going but frequently lost it again being a bit undecided where to go next but I think with a bit more practice this should become second nature.

Bit of an added feature...had this Fat Quarter forever and finally found a good use for it using it as a back for the pillow.

Also tried my luck on using a zipper closure again...word of warning...open your zipper before sewing the whole lot together! What a hassle, took me forever to pry this open to turn the pillow out.

Linking up to the March FMQ Challenge held by Darlene over at Quiltshopgal.

Also popping over to  Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social to spread the word.

Karin

FMQ Fun

I have been working on the March FMQ Challenge hosted by Quiltshopgal. This months' expert is Patsy Thompson. I thought that I might post about my progress otherwise my link up post is just going to get too long at the end of the month.

I am an avid follower of Patsy Thompson and have talked about her DVDs previously. I acquired the feather series some time ago and have been hooked ever since, particularly on the hyperquilting. In trying to work out what to sew, I went on Patsy's blog and instantly was inspired to try her pillow design. It featured a beautiful trapunto wreath. Now here was a challenge...I have not done a lot of trapunto and thought this was a good opportunity to give it another crack. So basically I am just a bit of a copycat this month in terms of design.
Basically used what I had on hand and traced the design on my square. Had I considered this a bit more, I would have left out the middle section of the wreath...more on that later

Stitched out design

Batting and thin interfacing behind the wreath

In-lining

I placed some wafer-thin interfacing behind the batting as just stitching through the batting was a bit tricky tension-wise...the interfacing fixed this. Trimmed the batting very carefully, basted it and got to work on outlining the wreath with invisible thread, following Patsy's instruction on her blog. All good, except that I now noticed that the inside plumes were puffing out like no tomorrow. This made sense, given that I had not done any in-lining in there...yep, something to think about beforehand.

As you may have noticed, I changed the pearls to a lighter colour...the red ones I had done before were just really sloppy. Tried to be quick and just sewn them in there, even though I knew they would look better if I did half circles first and then complete them on the second run...so I did them properly second time around. The outlining of the plumes was interesting...used invisible thread as Patsy had done and realized that I would have to jump sections if I did not want to backtrack on the invisible thread. Bit of a hassle and my jumping turned out a bit untidy on the back and the fat plumes in the middle were a bit of a challenge! But the beast got tamed and it looks sort of alright.

Learned another thing doing this...my outer circle from which the in-lining was done looks quite untidy (if you look closely) and I realized that I should have stitched slightly off the sewn circle...I think that might look better. Overall though a decent trapunto effort, judging by my previous attempts.

Anyway, finished this today with some echo lines around the circle and then tackled the corners. Used the walking foot for that and then tried something I had not done before...used one of my decorative stitches to put the row of pearls in. The Pfaff machine has a basic circle and with some minor adjustment I was able to make it a bit rounder and smaller to fit exactly into my 1/4in space. The machine backtracks over the circle, so it is quite a heavy stitch and FMQ circles do look a bit better, however just for the texture, this was perfect...finished this in no time at all and now can get back to FMQ the rest.


Linking up to Connie's Freemotion by the River, even though it's Wednesday today however have not linked up anywhere for a while and there is a bit of a Giveaway going on as well as lots to see.

Karin

Perfectionist...Not me!

Continued working on my feather arrangement. I had in mind to put a frame around the feather wreath. Obviously I over-estimated my skill level. When I drew the frame in with my flexible curve ruler, I came to the realisation that there was no way that I was going to get a match on either side, in fact I had not even figured out what exactly I wanted this to look like...did I want more free flowing feather, different sizes, different shapes or did I want a more uniform arrangement...and how big?

Inititally I tried to lightly draw some feathers in but soon realised that I would not be able to re-create that on the other side, not freehand anyway. Out came the paper...pity, I should have photographed the many attempts that I produced on paper yesterday. This was quite hilarious as I got to a point of perfectionist delirium, I reckon...not uncommon for me so I had to take a break to get back to reality.

After a bit of a break I made some decisions first, i.e. I went for a more uniform approach and also decided on a proximate height and size, then did my drawing...and presto, that worked.

After this I did what I had done the other day (see the post HERE for how I marked the feather wreath) and drew the design on my Golden thread paper and stitched through it with a bigger needle on my unthreaded machine. Then I used the Quilt Pounce and lightly transferred the design onto the quilt.

Very pleased with the result. The first photo is a bit touched up...the colour  does not photograph well

Half of the corner arrangement

Matching Middle Section

While I could have tried to do this freehand there is no way I would have achieved this level of mirroring and given that this is going to frame the wreath all around I think it is important to look more uniform than not.

Also, next time I might try to spray baste my quilt. The pins are continually in the way and for the marking of course I had to take whole sections out...not ideal. My batting is NuWool Batting, an Australian product...a bit of loft, but very nice and soft, easy to work with and no bearding!

Anyway, six more to go...

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

Karin