Friday, February 14, 2014

Pause after battle


taming the bedquilt
Quilting this monster bedquilt was like doing battle: fierce fighting in the middle and a few skirmishes elsewhere.

I'd walking-footed along both sides of major seams and fmq'd in the ditch within each nine-patch triangular block. As Cindy Needham says, stitch E-S-S (every stinking seam).
laid out on my bed for inspection
I've learned . . .
  • the open toe walking foot lets me see enough for straighter and truer stitches;
  • using the fmq foot is like driving a sports car instead of a moving van; and
  • when restarting, take a stitch in place and relax the finger hold so that the first stitch is not tugged awry. 
wool batting puffs up each triangle
Quilting is on pause as I contemplate motifs: may leave the printed triangles as is, and add feathers and swirls in the larger solid areas. 

Thursday, February 6, 2014

FMQ inspiration & evolution

Love the patterning on this building spied in an architectural magazine:
rendering of expansion to Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg proposed by Dominique Perrault
Inspired, I stitched these samples as a warm-up for fmq:
pattern evolution from straight lines to s-curves
I find curves much easier than straight lines. Is it that way for you too?