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Sunday 19 February 2012

The 'p' word

'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?

3 comments:

  1. 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!

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  2. Hi 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.

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  3. Looking 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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