Thursday, September 23, 2010

fun fun fun!!!

Some of you may have seen this project I have been working on with Tonya at the 15 minutes blog
 She made the fabulous star, and I did the background orange/yellows and bits...   Hop over to the other site for more info on it...  It's been so fun to work on, and now I need to get to those Y seams!
It makes me sing and dance when I look at it!
Yippeee!

******
Many of your comments yesterday regarding machine quilting feathers, were extremely helpful! Thank you! It's good to learn form others who have gone through the same thing!  
Thanks for all the great encouragement as well!

Above is one practice attempt at my feathers, I drew it out on vellum, and then quilted right over the drawing...  This was very helpful.
Although it was hard to get the paper off... I felt much more confident after I saw how it looked....
I did watch that DVD on FUN WITH FEATHERS, and I took her advice on which way to start your feather swooping motions, which was very helpful indeed. It was opposite from the way I was drawing them...
 As I sat watching the DVD on my computer, i thought, why do I have such an ugly mouse pad??
So I had to fix that with a bit of steam a seam and some funky fabric...
Much better! Do you agree?
After I ironed the mouse pad down, I accidentally pulled my iron off the ironing table and quickly did  dance to get my feet out of the way... But alas, it bit me twice...
After I watched that DVD on feathers I got all excited to get the STAR SPLITTER quilt basted...
Half way through I ran out of pins... oh well, always tomorrow! My day wasn't going so great...
Later,
I had much more fun anyway, running around NYC with RENE from Rene creates, and her son.
They were in town for two days checking out colleges, so I took them through Times Square, Central Park, Union Square, subway rides, etc... It was a lovely day!
I'm so glad you came by Rene!  Great to see you again!


19 comments:

  1. Wow girl...that star is so Fab and making me tingle a-l-l over....I'm crazy over how you did the background...cool!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Okay, can you hear my heart singing from here!! It is just gorgeous!! So who is it going to live with? If you two can't decide, I have the perfect home for it right here!! Your feathers are great. My best advice is just keep practicing. It gets easier as it goes. The star splitter looks great under the swing. But is there going to be one of those Quilt Widower Anonymous meetings for the significant others soon?? Nice mouse pad too!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow! The star quilt is fantastic! I love the idea of the pieced orange backgrounds...all such yummy and harmonious oranges when they are together. VERY sunny! How could anyone be unhappy or grumpy under or near such a happy, fun quilt?

    In stitches,
    Teresa :o)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I want to knw about that swing thing. Is that what you sit on when you are pinning the middle of your quilt so you don't have to step on it and do wild gyrations taht would look good on one of those porn videos?

    Yep, I think I need a swing like that in my living room.

    glen: wouldn't you know my word verification was buffs! LOL.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I drew each and every feather for several years. They were easy to quilt, but the marking took longer than the quilting. Then I read BRAIDED FEATHERS, by Shirley Stutz in the AQS journal: AMERICAN QUILTER, May 2010. They are really easy, and no marking. That wouldn't work for your corner applications, but still a good tool to add to your skills.
    Press and Seal, the fancy cling wrap, works well for drawing a pattern and then quilting it. It may be easier to remove than paper. I was told that machine quilting takes lots of practice. They didn't tell me that meant several years of practice, not several hours. It does get better. Use thin threads, and cotton batt that shrinks, and very little shows. Helps confidence for learning. Also the books by Dianne Gaudinski are worth memorizing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dear Quiltswissy, How did you guess?
    hahahaha! I won't tell my daughter what you think her swing is for...(it's always in teh way of my quilts!) good golly, I've got tears of laughter rolling from my eyeballs.

    ReplyDelete
  7. absolutely love the star wow and the yellow (my favorite happy color) is just beautiful addition to the star
    ah....can't wait to see this one done.

    ReplyDelete
  8. So cool you guys got to spend some time together!!! Can't wait to see you next summer!! :-)
    Toni

    ReplyDelete
  9. That star is just amazingly gorgeous. What a fun collaboration! It really just pops off the page.

    ReplyDelete
  10. you're doing such a fab job on that star! the feathers look great, as they will on the starsplitter quilt. love the mouse pad! definitely not an option I'd ever thought of for fixing one up.

    ReplyDelete
  11. That star is SOOO awesome!!! You inspire me daily!

    ~candace

    ReplyDelete
  12. Oh! I gasped when I saw that wonderful star quilt!
    The feathers are awesome too.

    And the Star Splitter is gorgeous.

    I brought my asterisk quilt to Jackie this morning. Her quilting studio is beautiful with all those new fabrics she has in there.

    Yikes. Too bad about the burns. Big improvement on that mouse pad!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Victoria, thanks so much for taking time to show us around your city! We had such fun seeing the sights, but especially hanging out with you and Beatrice in your way too cool loft! By the way, I had to ask for four bandaids from the hotel from all the walking we did ;-) Can't wait to do it again!

    ReplyDelete
  14. The star is just incredible - great team effort going on!!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Ha ha.... the swing thing :0).....I was actually remembering how fun it was to rest my tummy on a swing and draw things in the dirt when I was a kid.....maybe you can baste the quilt from that position :0).

    (Put some vitamin E on those burns and maybe they won't scar.)

    The star quilt is just outstanding...
    have you decided on a quilt pattern yet? Hand stitched baptist fans perhaps? Wouldn't that be beautiful?

    Happy Sewing

    ReplyDelete
  16. That star is amazing and beautiful! You and Tonya clicked on that one!!
    I'm jealous that Rene got a tour of NYC....some day... Glad you two (three) had a great time.
    Your large yellow quilt is getting there too! It's so pretty. Send off that pattern - I'll find some fabric for you.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hey V, This quilt is FREAKIN GORGEOUS! I luv it! YOur feathers are looking great! glad you got to see Rene'. Great stuff, girlfriend! Have a good Sunday, (I'll talk to you tomorrow.) Happy quilting, my friend!!

    ReplyDelete
  18. That star is fantastic!!
    I love the girl goth mouse pad - awesome - I want one

    ReplyDelete

Hi! Thanks for leaving me a comment!
I appreciate your taking the time to say hi!
Have a fabulous day!