'P' stands for 'practice' and with my non-existent limited patience I practice not often enough. After discussing with Suz the merits of various battings and things I decided to put the QD9 in the drawer until I have made a decision and have purchased batting, sashing and probably backing. On Rhianon's blog I saw that Diane Gaudynski was the February Tutor on SewCalGal's FMQ Challenge. The tutorial is very thorough, check it out here.
Following this tutorial I had my first ever proper go at feathers - yippieh - and on a (wait!) practice piece (there are few and far between in my house!). It ain't perfect (make sure you check out Rhianon's on the link above, hers are divine!!!), but I now know I can do them :-)
What I found challenging was that Diane's instructions included quilting away from you; combined with unexplained skipped stitches this made me wobble up the spine, and after 6 plumes on the left I gave up on it. When I instead turned my fabric so I was approximately sewing towards me, it went much better. Instead of locking in the stitches like Diane advises, I will pull my threads into the batting, I have found that stitches tend to come undone eventually.
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| Placed on one of the blocks; I plan to use variegated thread. Combined with a diagonal through all the coloured blocks this might be enough quilting, alternatively I might stipple with white thread around the feathers. |
What do you think?
I just read your last post and was about to suggest that you have a look at Diane's tutorial! Rhianon's feathers are very inspiring, aren't they. Did you see the post that Diane put up about the angle for the the feathers? I think that's what I've been doing wrong. Not a steep enough angle to the stem. Your practice piece looks good. Go for the stippling and make your wonderful feathers really stand out!
ReplyDeleteHi Monika - I think your feathers are looking really great. They have a nice flow. I completely agree with what Rona said about stippling the background. I think that makes all the difference. I also know what you mean about sewing towards you - it's difficult when you can't see where you are going. Thanks for the link back to my blog. Keep having fun with you feathers.
ReplyDeleteLooking good! Remember that variegated thread will make all the little oopsies stand out... so maybe a blendy sort of colour would work better?
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