Country Roads and Floating Foxes

Lori is having a link-up for her Country Roads SAL and I actually have both of my versions finished in time.

Here is the first one after I got the ubiquitous black binding attached.

 I decided to mix up the second one. I quilted it quite differently, after the stitch-in-the-ditch.

I put cross-hatching in the setting triangles, and I did itty-bitty feathered wreaths in the setting squares (that gave me fits--I had to unpick two of them). You can see it all better from the back. And I didn't bind this one in black, either. It looks like it, I know, but it is a dark purple.

You may recall that I made my versions half the size of Lori's original, so that made the wreaths smaller than I have ever tried. Here you see the finished quilts with a 5" charm pack to get a little perspective.

This made the wreaths 2"! I used a stencil--I have not gained enough skill and confidence to free-hand those things (probably never will).

I want to share something with you about the feathers on stencils. It is something I have noticed over the years that I have worked on feathers and I thought I would give a little insight.


When you trace a stencil from a wreath you often end up with something like this.

You can see the arrows pointing out all of the gaps needed in order to keep the stencil together.

This sample is from a 3 inch feathered wreath--it was a little easier to show you than on the 2 inch wreath, though the pattern is exactly the same.

I typically fill in the gaps with whatever type of marker I am using on the quilt, for ease of flow as I quilt. For this purpose I have used a red pencil on the paper to fill in the lines. I think the photo here shows what is typically done to fill in gaps. It makes a nice feathered wreath, but something about it has always bothered me.
 As I studied free-hand feathers I realized the stencil tended to create a less graceful feather shape. The stencil design below is filled in with lines that create more of the free-hand shaped feather.

Can you see the difference?
Try comparing here.

If you are still scratching your head trying to decide what is different, maybe this will help.

Can you see how the top feathers are shaped like a teardrop and the lower ones have a shape all their own? There is no right or wrong shape and I haven't notified the quilt police to be on the lookout for malformed feathers, I have just found the teardrop shape to please my eye more and look more like the free-hand feathers I was taught to make. You quilt your feathers however you would like and they will look lovely no matter! : )

Enough of that, let's float some foxes! Gidget worked hard and got it all quilted.

 

 Abby's name even found its way into the quilting. You can almost see it here. : )

All of the faces got furry cheeks, swirly eyes, and loops on the nose.

Stippling finished the background of the fox blocks. 


The grey diagonals received VERY crooked organic lines, spaced 2 or 3 fingers apart.

A swirly pattern that incorporated hooks and eyelashes as fillers covered the aqua diagonals.

I have a teal fabric for the binding and there is still a week before the birthday, so hopefully I will get it finished, even though I am the world's slowest binder.  

The fox pattern is by Elizabeth Hartman, and comes in several sizes. I used Fancy Fox II, making the less gigantic of the two blocks in the pattern. For smaller foxes choose the original Fancy Fox pattern. (These links are for PDF downloads.)

Until next time,
Janet O.

A hodgepodge of projects and a little seasonal decor.

A few years ago I made dozens of fabric pumpkins. I always thought it would be fun to have Linus in the midst of them. This year I found a ceramic Linus figure at a thrift shop, but he was painted all wrong. Having painted ceramics profusely in a former life, I brought him home to repaint. My hands are not as steady as they used to be and it took me SO MUCH LONGER than I planned!
And when it finally came down to putting the stripes on his shirt, I used a Micron Pigma pen. The hair gave me enough grief with the tiny paintbrush. I wasn't going to attempt the stripes that way, too. But I am pleased to finally have Linus in the pumpkin patch, awaiting the Great Pumpkin! : )

"Floating Foxes" is under the needle. I am making it up as I go along. I have some of my quilt design reference books handy and when I get stumped, I flip through and find something I think might work. Then I try it on a practice sandwich before actually putting it on the quilt.

After basting this quilt, as I stood in the loft to take the photo, I thought it looked like the foxes were at a New Year's celebration at midnight, with confetti fluttering through the air. If you are not familiar with the pin covers I am using here, and you pin baste your quilts for FMQ, you may want to check them out.

I use the pin covers for a few reasons.
First, with the pin covers on, and using the Kwik Klip tool, I do not experience the hand fatigue I used to get when pin basting a quilt.
Second, while free motion quilting, I am always able to spot my pins and have never run into a pin (which can hurt your machine) while using them.
Third, while quilting, it is easier to grasp and remove the pins as I quilt, when they have these covers on them.
Fourth, you can leave the pins open when not in use. With the covers on, they do not get all tangled up, so it saves even more hand stress, and saves time. I do not have to open each pin as I baste, and I do not have to close them to put them away.

My first Country Roads from Lori's SAL is quilted and waiting for binding. I was going to use red, because I feel like I overuse black. But my personal research indicates that I didn't like the red as well, so it will be black--again!

The grid lines through the green chains seem to dominate the quilting. From the front you can't even tell that I have quilted around the black rectangles.

I had some tension issues that I didn't see until I was finished. I once told myself that I could no longer quilt black-on-black at night. Well, apparently I should be barred from any thread that perfectly matches the fabric. My top thread lays a little flat in many areas, but at the moment I am not inclined to unpick--too busy chasing foxes around my quilting table!

Caught up with the Buttermilk Basin Mystery BOM.  My sunflower is not as disciplined as Miss Stacy's. It is a bit tipsy--by design (or maybe it isn't just water in that jar).





October's block should post this week. I seem to recall that at the start of this Stacy had said there would be 11 blocks. I am really curious as to how we will be setting 11 blocks.
Here are my 9 blocks so far.

Block #9 for the Attic Heirlooms Ornament of the Month is completed now. Number 10 has posted, but I don't know that I will go any farther.

Obviously, I have not been making mine into ornaments. I have cut my blocks at 4 1/2", so they will finish at 4".


The fabric I have appliqued onto is from a thrift store shirt, so it made sense to me to finish the top with repurposed fabrics from shirts. Just played with it a little bit last night, and this is what I am thinking of doing. May add another red plaid as an outer border, if I can find one that doesn't overpower the whole thing. It will only be about 15" square without the added border.

I think I am happy with it as is, and would like to have it finished before the holidays get underway, rather than be waiting for another block to post so I can get it made.

Well, the foxes are waiting for me. I'd better get back to them.
Until next time,
Janet O.

Plenty of stitching going on...

...just not much time for posting about it.

 

Lori's Country Roads SAL was fun. I made mine half the size. Her pattern gave you 5" finished blocks. Mine finish at 2 1/2".

Still pondering how I will quilt it.
Then there is my second version--also made half-size. Still have to stitch the blocks together on this one.

I got my table mat from  Lisa Bongean's class completed. May I present "Winter Cabin"!

                                                                                                                                                                          

I'm so glad I got this refresher course on wool with Lisa. It has been almost 3 years since I took a class from her and that was my very first introduction to wool applique. She is an excellent teacher, but I was so overwhelmed with all of the info I was taking in that I couldn't absorb it all. It was good to have a second chance to see what I had missed.

















 I love the little snowmen on this piece. You can see here how the pattern called for them to stand with their arms demurely to their sides. Most of them cooperated.

This cheeky little snowman was feeling frisky and tried to get the wave going. : )













I didn't post these photos first because I didn't want you to wonder if you were on the right blog. : )
Back in January I first saw the Fancy Fox pattern on Nancy's blog. I loved what she went on to create from it and I knew I had to make something from it for my oldest granddaughter, who is enamored with foxes. I bought the pattern back then but didn't do anything with it until Monday of this week. The birthday is the end of this month so I figured I had better get cracking

My daughter told me that they are redoing Abby's room for her birthday and the colors will be orange, teal and grey. I am so out of my comfort zone here, and that seemed to play out in all of the trouble I had putting this together.

Don't get me wrong--the pattern instructions are excellent and the fox blocks go together quickly and precisely. The problem was that I didn't want just fox blocks, and I was back to my "fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants" design method. That always invites problems. Then I made the mistake of choosing a fabric with a very directional print. I have to say that my seam ripper has been my constant companion on this project. : )

BTW, I must add--you do realize that one of these fox blocks by itself is larger than most of the quilts I have made of late? These finish at 20x24".

 I played with my antiquated version of EQ (aka graph paper and pencil) until I finally came up with something I thought I could make. The one to the left was my first idea. I scratched that for an off-center barn raising design. That paper went in the circular file. Then I played with the idea below, and finally hit upon the one to the right.

Our granddaughter will be at our home with her family on Sunday, so I wanted to have the top assembled and hidden away before then. I will still have over 3 weeks to get it quilted and bound. My goodness, it usually takes me at least 3 months to decide how to quilt something. I hope inspiration strikes more quickly this time.

The good thing that came of all of my "resewing" was that there were plenty of opportunities to run my leader/ender blocks through the machine, and I had a healthy pile to add to my collection of windmill blocks by the time this top was assembled.

I keep my leader/ender supplies tucked beneath my extension table as I work. I can easily grab them when needed, but they aren't in my way.

Well, I think that about covers it. I may be in recovery mode for a while from my foray into modern quilting. I'm just not cut out for it. : )

Until next time,
Janet O.