February Feathers

Whew, almost didn't get this one in on time - I kind of overbooked myself this last month (more about all that in a later post) - good thing this is a leap year so I had an extra day! 

This is the second month of the Free Motion Quilting Challenge from SewCalGal (thanks SewCalGal - this challenge is great fun!)  This month, our guest teacher Diane Gaudynski gave us a fine tutorial on how she quilts her amazing feathers (go look at her blog - it's amazing and inspiring!).

 Finally got to it this last weekend and discovered several very important facts - 

1. feathers are harder than they look (and they look pretty hard!)

2. I really need to practice that echo stitch more

3. when they say it's best to practice everyday, they know what they're talking about (whoever they are)

So this post starts out with a photo of one of my later efforts, just because (because the earlier ones are rather pathetic to the point of being humorous)

In spite of the fact that I started out by drawing what I hoped would be feathers, my first sewn efforts really looked more like strange spatulas and wriggling caterpillars and alien vegetables than like any kind of feathers. 

So I drew some more, and some more, and finally I printed out a copy of this month's tutorial feather and used the tracing paper.

Many pencil leads later, I tried again - with somewhat better success. 

I kind of went overboard with the echo stitching - but I really needed to practice.  And though the echos are still pretty uneven, they're improving!

All in all, I'm happy with my progress, but can see that there's a ways to go yet (those pesky caterpillars keep sneaking in there when I'm not looking!)!

Beginning Rigid Heddle Weaving Class!

If you're interested in weaving, and live on or near Vashon Island (Washington State), I'm teaching a class! 

Beginning Rigid Heddle Weaving

Three Weeks/Three Scarves

The Rigid Heddle Loom is a simple but versatile (and very portable) little loom.  In three sessions, students will weave three scarves, learning how to warp the loom, how to weave plain weave, how to select yarns for weaving, how to use stripe, plaid, and log cabin “color and weave” effects, how to finish the ends of a scarf with hems and/or fringes, how to wash and care for handwovens, and how to plan future projects.  Handouts and Resource Bibliography will be provided.

Supplies needed:

Rigid Heddle Loom (Schacht Spindle Company’s Cricket loom is a good first loom)

 8 Dent Reed (comes with a new loom)

 Warping Peg (comes with a new loom)

Threading Hook (comes with a new loom)

 2 Stick Shuttles (comes with a new loom)

Yarn – for the first scarf you will need about 250 yards (a bit more if you like your scarves very long or very wide) of a next-to-the-skin (Merino is good) DK or light Worsted Weight yarn.  You may make your first scarf from one or two colors (125 yards each), solid or variegated.

Yarn selections for the second and third scarves will be discussed in class.

Optional but useful items:  Tapestry needle

                                              Fringe Twister

Minimal homework (finish your scarf and get yarns for next session)

$60 for 3 sessions@ 3hours each

Saturdays – January 28, February 4, February 11 from 1PM to 4PM

at Island Quilter 17639 Vashon Hwy SW, Vashon, WA

To sign up, call Island Quilter at 206-713-6000

Be sure to buy or rent your own loom ASAP so you have a loom for the first class

(there will be looms to buy at Island Quilter, 
and one loom for rental)

Teacher Nancy Olszewski currently leads the Seattle Weaver’s Guild Rigid Heddle Study Group (we meet on Vashon the third Sunday of the month).  See her projects on farmnana.blogspot.com (look in the 2010 archives for the “a scarf a week challenge” scarves).  

FMQ Project's "Quilt Along Wednesdays" - first two lessons

In The Free Motion Quilting Challenge, there was a link to "Quilt Along Wednesdays" which led me to a rather fabulous blog and an amazing quilter - Leah Day.   Check out her 365 days of Free Motion Quilting Filler Designs!  Wow!  Not just fun designs, but clear and generous instructional videos as well! 

And now she's sharing her expertise and experience in a series of lessons/tutorials for us beginners!  First up was stippling, the basic background filler everyone should learn, and here are my rows of practice. 

Not a bad start.  I like rows, they're easy (easier, maybe).  Bottom "row" is more fill-like and starts to get a little weird (do you see the strange animals?).  Oh well.

Second lesson was about working in a quadrant pattern (here's the illustration from her blog, so you know what I'm talking about - the arrows show the direction of quilting).  

I tried it out with a heart shaped leaf pattern first (see my previous post) which was really fun, and then I went back and stitched a stippled sample.

My little dotted blue lines are still there, so you can see the path of stitching.  I wanted to have the beginning and end join up, so instead of starting in the center, I started in the middle of the right side (you can see the starting dot and the awkward join.  Oh well).  My stippling isn't as fluid as I'd like it to be - I think I need to relax and get wigglier (and practice more!), but I'm happy with my thread tension, and I'm happy with my progress, and I'm having fun!

And next lesson will be working with size/scale - how appropriate after my varied leaf sizes in my last post!

And why two posts in one day?  Well, we're still snowed in and unlike many people in the Northwest, we still have electricity!