Feathers All Marked

Here it is....feathers all marked but don't know what i want to quilt in the reddish print borders yet so it is going to sit for a bit while I think.

We are having hunters here from Cincinnatti this weekend anyway so I don't have time to do anything anyway.  Maybe I will get an idea while I am cleaning and entertaining.  Pheasant season opens this weekend and these same fellows come each year.  They enjoy hunting with John and the other guys and all the wives and kids get together with them in the evenings.  They stay in a local motel and we eat out on Friday and Saturday night but they are all coming here on Sunday evening for dinner....they do the cooking and cleaning up so I think that is pretty wonderful.  We will be having steak and all the fixins and it is always yummy.   Started cleaning up my house earlier in the week as I get fatigued and have to sit and rest my ankle periodically, besides I just can't do it all in one day like I used to.

"Talk" to you all in a few days.

Lynn

Part Two - Feathers

 I approached the border feathered units the same way I did the inside feathers. The only difference was I cut myself a template to mark the curves of the spine of the feather. I used the same curve for both the shorter side and the longer side. The long side is about 3/4" longer than the short side. I just adjusted each segment a tiny bit - you can't even see the difference but it takes up that extra length to make the design flow.

 

Uh-Oh...The Big Mistake!

As you can see from the first photo on this blog entry I goofed a little when I transferred my measurements to the paper for the short side so just marked it with slashes and moved ahead. I then made a mistake on the long side too....was watching my favorite college football team and got distracted. (American football and of course the team is the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers!) I did have to start over on it since my corner design was just not in the corner. How did I do that for pity sakes?






This last photo is the finished border feathers...now to get them all marked onto the quilt

Lynn

OK - Feathers It Is

I love quilting feathers!!! This quilt will have mini feathers in two places for that very reason. One place they will be is inside the borders and another  is on the outside border.

Here is how I drew the feathered undulating lines to fit the inside spaces. First I measured the length and width of the section where I wanted the feathers to go. I transferred those measurements to paper and then divided the lengths into segments and drew smooth curves to make the center undulating line of the feathers. I wanted to make a fancy transition on the sides where the feathers meet so drew feathered designs to fit those spaces. On this small corner I just eyeballed and free hand drew the curves and the feathers trying to make a smooth transition between each feather. I just drew one corner then marked each of the quilt corners with this one design.  Everything is first drawn in pencil then I go over the drawing with a marker.  The darker lines will all show with my makeshift light box.

To transfer the design to the quilt I place a light on the shelf that my sewing machine sits on in the cabinet. The surface around the machine is a clear plastic so I just tape down my design then tape the quilt over the design in the proper position and trace the design onto the quilt.  If this were a larger quilt this space would be too small but for a miniature this is a big enough "light box."

Tomorrow the other feathered border.

Lynn

Miniature Flower Basket - Borders

The first thing I have done to my quilt is to add three borders to the center section.  The three borders were stitched together before the 1/8" inch inside border was appliqued to the quilt top.  The inside border is only 1/8" wide and I find it much easier to applique something that small onto the background rather than seaming it.  I can keep the it all even that way.  I have problems when I seam those small borders and I can make them look really wiggly by only being off a thread or two if I stitch it with a regular seam.

I mitered the corners of the quilt after all three borders were added.  You can see a shadow of the background piece behind the borders.  I trimmed it back after the borders were stitched on and the corners mitered.  Didn't want to take a chance and trim it then find out I had to rip something apart and not have enough fabric.

My original idea was to put a scalloped border on the outside of the print border.  After I started laying the purple scallops out I started getting doubts about it.  It just looked way too busy and detracted from the center basket.  So off they came!

This is how the top looks now - just plain borders.  I do want to use the dark purple again either as the binding or a flange inside the border to bring the purple to the outside of the quilt but those scallops were just wrong, wrong, wrong!  Since I have large areas of solid borders I will do more quilting in those areas now.

OK, now to start figuring out how to quilt it....what designs to use, etc.  Am thinking feathers because I love to quilt feathers.  Is that taking the easy way out?

Oh, by the way if you want to read about the making of the other two basket quilts and the center of this one just look back in my March 09 blogs where I started blogging about the making of them.

Lynn