Monday, May 17, 2010

Free Motion Challenge - Day 6 and 7

The first week of my FM challenge went quick.. I have done quite a bit of stitching. More than I ever thought I'd get done.

Day 6 - I completed the free motion feathers on my 9-patch runner. Because of the colors, the quilting does not show up that much especially on photographs. It's a good lesson for me. It's happened before, that I spend lots of time planning a design, only to have the stitching blend perfectly into the fabric. Now if I was trying to do that, I wouldn't be able to do it... I will use this 9-patch runner to practice some background stitches later in the week.

Also on Day 6, I took some scraps from my spiral table runner, and did some test stitching. I decided to use my new spool of Sulky poly invisible thread since there are 8 fabrics from light to dark in this runner. I'm satisfied with my decision.


Day 7 - Before I even started, I was inspired when I saw the lovely little circles in the feathers spine on Joan's blog. She's doing the challenge as well. So, I got out yesterday's sample, and quickly tried the circles. They are on the other side of the feather that is in the black. Do you see it? Easy peasy.


Then with my heart in my throat, I started stitching on my spicy runner. Within 10 stitches of starting, my darn invisible thread broke. That Sulky poly thread is so hard to see. I discovered that the thread was looped around something that it wasn't supposed to be. I re-threaded, and started again. It was better.
I have half the spicy runner done. The feathers are quite easy to see depending on which angle you are looking from.


Here is the cute feather with the circles in the spine, from the back. I really like the detail.

Tomorrow, I'll stitch the other half of the runner, the red side. I realize now, that I may have to put some fillers into the larger unquilted spaces. That will take some practice.

3 comments:

Joanne said...

Your branching feathers look great, that is something I find hard to do.

Joan said...

Gail - I just love what you are doing - I am not game to use a thread I cant see...I think you are really brave...Well done!!

Karen said...

Woo Hoo, Gail!