December 2012 FMQ Challenge

Sad to say that this is the last of the challenges.  I still have the March one to do, which I'll have to make up as it wasn't available when I started the challenge in May.

Patsy Thompson was the tutor for December and the challenge focused on multiple borders and variations of feather designs in borders.  Given my time constraints, I decided to do the challenge on a lap quilt for my mother.  It was meant to be a Christmas present but I had to unpick too many times, so didn't finish it on the day.

I had a few hiccups with quilting the border, including sewing part of the back onto itself, which had me pulling out the stitches again.

As I wanted to make the quilt wider, I used wider borders along the length of the quilt, which meant I  had to use a different approach to the tutorial.  I started off with feather borders.  Given that the filler in the blocks were feathers as well, it started to look feather heavy.

The feather front

Feather back

My mother had asked for either roses or lilies in the quilting, I looked around the web for ideas and found an APQS video on quilting a rosebud shape freehand (these look a little rude!)  I also drew some stylised roses and transferred the to the quilt using the method taught by Don Linn.   Strangly, the blue marker doesn't want to wash out properly for some of the motifs but was fine if I simply drew a shape.  I wonder if there is a chemical in the netting I used, which reacts with the marker.  I think if I use this method in future, I will prewash the netting, just to make sure.

Rosebuds front

Rosebuds back

Because of the different end and side widths and the change in motifs, I finished with four different but related borders.  I'm pretty happy with the results, apart from the puckering on the back.  Not sure yet if this is due to the SID I did or the basting.  I used 100% wool batting for this quilt and love the puff it provides.

The back

The back again

Thanks again to SewCalGal and the expert tutors for these challenges.  My feathers have improved enormously and I really appreciate the value of drawing to instill some of the movements into your head and hands.

Dresden plates lap quilt

Now that we are back home (and back at work), I've decided to give my mother the Dresden plates lap quilt. I had only made the Dresden plates before we left, so I've been busy piecing the background and appliquéing the plates on. Last week I spent the night, with mozzies around my ankles, basting it, as I want to give it as a Christmas present.

I stitched "every stinking seam" (thanks Cindy Needham), even around each of the blades. I must have done a lousy job of basting, as to my dismay, there are lots of puckering opportunities on both the front and back of the quilt!

I'll be quilting it quite loosely, so I'm hoping I'll get away with if for five of the plates, but the second last one I did is bad and I'll have to pull out the trusty seam ripper.

I'm still trying to decide what to quilt and have started off with fm feathers in the blocks. I've confirmed that I can't work my way down from the top, as my feathers start to look really odd. I still haven't decided what to do in the sashing and borders. Maybe I'll try the December video Fmq challenge.