Finally, The Star and Some Feathers

 I finally have the Star Quilt out of the washing and drying machines.  It wrinkled up nicely!

Check out the back, it looks like a star!

And these are some feathers I made for Mr. Pat's Louisiana Traveling Quilt.  His does not have the theme of Louisiana like the other two I was working on.  It had the feel of modern masculine and angles.  One night I was dreaming that I had feathers from the Anna Marie Horton Feather Bed Quilt.

And it was so!

They will fit nicely on one side or the other.  I plan on leaving them off for the moment and sendin a note to the next person in line asking them to include them in their piece down one side or the other as it all fits together.

I really love this quilt.

glen

Feathers

I love feathers.  I know Sophie loves them too, but I really have a thing for them too.

So when I decided to give myself a present, I went with a feather!

This is T.  When I go back next week II will bring him some exotic flavored teas.  It is his thing.

I love it!

And I am officially a Bad Girl!

Enviable Quilting

By observing our envy, we shine light on our true desires. -  Danielle LaPorte

She poses a question to us:  What kind of success are you envious of?

I thought that was a great question, because I have been looking with great longing at these fabulous designs that people are quilting with their fancy quilting machines.  I have looked with great longing for many years now at their work and wished i could do similar things.  When I got my last

machine, and I couldn't do that fabulous work, I blamed it on the machine.  The harp was too small, the space too constricting, the patterns too complicated.

But really,, all that was just a way to whine

about me not wanting to put in the work to be what I wanted to be.  Now with the new machine, I have none of those excuses and I have to "do the work" myself.

I am thinking I need to adjust my thoughts
to want to do the work; to revel in the work.  My mindset needs to be tweaked so it becomes pleasurable to run the machine over the cloth sandwich.  Work needs to become play.

Can I do it?  Maybe.  I know that I am not usually happy with repetition and work that is not easy to do.  It will take effort to make myself put in the practice to get where I want to be.

And i also know most likely I will never be a "perfect" quilter who wins at the Houston show.  But I do know I can outshine myself.

I spent the late hours of last night quietly curled up on the sofa with DiNozzo practicing making feathers.  I hit upon a method I  think I will use.   As you can see I got better and better with each set of feathers.  I also learned how  to make those little circles!  So cool.

Now I can circle till the cows come home!

Keep our veterans in your hearts!  I have 3 generations of Veterans in my life.  I am proud of each of them!

Design Wall Monday 12-5-11

Finally, finishing a UFO and actually getting to work on something.  In the essence of time, I just used my domestic and did meanders for the quilting.

This will go to the Christmas Party at the nursing home my mother stays in called Nottingham Regional Rehab Center.  They will use it as an employee gift.  I have a couple more I would like to finish and get out as well, so they may get about 3 or 4 of them if I have time. 

I used the leftovers to make the back of the quilt.  And it still needs to have the binding sewn on and down.  And I guess a label should go on there as well.  The backing gave me fits. See the light fabric in the middle?  It did a fine job of bunching up while I was quilting from the tops side and I had to take the entire section out and redo it.  Pain in the patooty! 

Anyway, it is one of my favorite guys.  I love the fabrics, they were ones I bought on sale about 5 years ago and hoarded them until last year.  Then I hoarded the top because I loved the fabrics still!

I am always afraid that when I cut up the fabrics I won't like them as much anymore.  So I often hate to cut up my fabrics.........do you do that?

glen