Best of the best

It’s easier to find a few minutes to sew once or twice a day than it is to find time to blog! I’ve tried to write this three times in the past two days, but there just hasn’t been enough time. Twelve more years before I can retire. :-(

The good news is that I’ve been practising my FMQ Challenge feathers.There are a lot of things to remember – using a curve that’s gentle enough to keep the individual “quills” nice and even, keeping them plump and even, etc. I made several practice attempts and finally found one that I was willing to post, even though I’m still not at the point where I’d try this on a good quilt. I’m having a hard time getting the echo lines really close and parallel. Just when I thought I was doing well, I’d have to move my hands and… oooops.

But, I know I’m improving. I can regulate the speed of my sewing machine much better now, just by listening to it, and my hands and feet are getting more co-ordinated with the sewing machine. I may not be ready to put feathers on a quilt, but I can see how much better it’s looking. Even my partner said today that the feathers really looked good – at least, from a distance.

I’m still practising my stippling and my all-over leaves. Now I can add feathers to that. I’m already feeling a lot more confident about quilting my next quilt.

I made a mistake in my last post when I was trying to identify the pattern I was FMQing for Leah Day's 4th challenge . I couldn’t remember the name of Gwen Marston’s book, so I just left it blank, expecting to add it before I posted it to my blog. I forgot. Anyway, the design was from Quilting with Style: Principles for Great Pattern Design by Gwen Marston and Joe Cunningham. It’s an older book that I picked up with some other quilt books at the Kamloops Library’s used book sale last summer. I chose the pattern because of it’s use of both straight and curved lines.

Time for bed now. Until next time,