A quilting weekend

   Sometimes I find myself saying things and then I wonder, "Where did that come from?".  I don't just mean the "putting foot in mouth" behavior, but the jumping in and saying "let me" variety.  At this age/stage of life, I have developed the ability to just say no to a lot of things.  So, when a friend showed me a photo of a project she was finishing and asked if a few straight lines of quilting would be okay, guess what popped out of my mouth?
  A few days later, Ann was gracious and tried to talk me out of my offer.  I insisted that I needed the practice.

This is a beautiful Christmas tree skirt she is making for her newly wed Granddaughter.  She will be finishing off the edges and adding the center hole, so that part was left unquilted.  

  When I saw the photo, I had instant visions of wonderful streams of feathers in the green and red areas.  The areas of the holly print are done in a medium scale meandering stitch.  

The back side......with lots of stitches!

  

 The cream area was just perfect for a triangular spray of feathers.  This is the first time I really tried fitting free motion stitching into a given area.  

    By the time I got to the larger areas, I was really feeling brave.  I mixed in some individuals plumes with the attached and bump-back plumes. 

   And I am really glad for our rainy weather this weekend.....I had no guilt about investing time on this.  

  

    I will be delivering this to Ann on Tuesday at class, and I am crossing my fingers that she will be delighted with it.  

   It was a magical feeling to see that first vision in my head come to life.   All the time spent in practice last year through the Free Motion Challenge at SewCalGal, and all the doodle pad pages I  filled with drawing those plumes over and over  paid off in the confidence to do this one.   I do think the drawing is the key to developing the skill level here.....so grab your paper and pencils, practice, then quilt!

Happy stitching.