FMQ Friday

Its time to link up again to Leah Day's FMQ Friday. I have missed a few Fridays. It is not that I am not quilting its just trying to remember to take more pictures. I have also been busy trying to decide what projects to take back to Alaska with me. I have a 5 day retreat when I get there and I want to make sure I have all my projects together.  My husband always shakes his head and laughs at me. I don't pack clothes I go back with a duffel bag of quilting items.

I have been trying to get the hair on Express Your Love done before I leave. Well I did, sort of. I have really been good about not ripping out any of my quilting. But after going back and rereading what Leah said about not liking hers I found a place on mine that I just could not live with.

My eye was being drawn to the top strand of her hair. That bottom fill in under the feather was really driving me crazy. So I had to take some of it out. Rip, Rip, Rip. But a more positive way to look at it would be "Redesign."

                                                                Much happier now

So on to her body. I have given this a lot of thought. I am going to remove her eye and keep her dark. Her lip may also come out.  I am now having to decide on the thread color. It will either be black or if you look closely you will see a thread sample of pewter at the bottom.  Can't decide.

I also finished quilting my Falling Leaves quilt this month. I am going to enter this one in our Guild quilt show this month here in Las Vegas.

                   

HAPPY QUILTING

FMQ FRIDAY: HER HAIR

FMQ FRIDAY: HER HAIR
After a weeks visit with the Grandkids, what fun we had, I am finally back to stitching on my Express Your Love quilt.

It has taken me awhile to decide what I wanted to do in her hair. Three of the strands will have the flying geese, and not sure what to call it but I put half of a feather on either side.
There was too much black in the flying geese for me so I added micro stippling, and did some thread painting next to the half feathers to give her hair added texture.

I have not figured out yet what I want to do with the remaining strands of her hair yet, but it will come to me, soon I hope. LOL

I have come up with an idea for her body, but that will be another post.

She is getting done faster than I wanted so not sure what I am going to do when she is finished. I am having so much fun doing her, not going to like it when it comes to an end.

FMQ Friday: Express Your Love

I am very slowing gaining confidence in my free motion quilting. I have tried all the suggestions that Leah Day has given us since the project has started. Some have come easier than others. Those are the ones I have put into my quilt.
All of my thread has been Isacord so far. I decided to go with Micro Zippling, McTavashing, Concentric circles in the sun rays.
I love the flying geese stitch that was introduced and I hope to add it to her. I am very excited to see what will go in Leah's for her hair and body. It is hard to wait for the next idea from Leah.
Thank you Leah.

UFO Sunday

I have not posted in awhile because I often do not take pictures of my quilts and projects until they are finished. My new quilting machine has been fun to learn on and so I finished a Husker Cow for my grandsons birthday. It gave me a chance to play with different threads before putting "Express Your Love" on it.

 I love the buttons on the utter.  My grandson has a things for cows which no one knows for sure why, and of course he loves football and the Huskers.  He has a great sense of humor and should find the buttons on the utter very funny.


Here is the progress on my Goddess. I did the micro zippling in the brick as Leah suggested. However I still am not ready to try Boomerangs. Just not happy yet with my practice samples. But I had to laugh at myself because it took me a week to get over the fear of trying McTavishing and put it into the quilt. I was on a thread mission at the Road to California Quilt show last month and found this beautiful variegated Isacord thread called Saffron. I love that it has just enough white in it that blended in so nicely with the white that was used in the outline.

Today I am tacking the concentric circles.  I chose to do these in Isacord: Autumn Leaf. It picked up some of the color in the Saffron.

I am enjoying this quilt so much and it is giving me so much practice on patterns that I have never tried. Thank you Leah Day.

Express Your Love

Express Your Love

I have been away from my quilting for a few days. Went to the Road to California Quilt show in Ontario, CA. Wow the quilts were fabulous and I came home with some new paints that I am anxious to try on my quilt, fabric, thread and a new quilting machine. I won't have that for a few weeks and I am so tempted to wait until it comes to work on her. But I think that will get me to far behind so I will just press on. LOL

Here is where I am on my Goddess

I painted the water on the Earth using the Jaquard paint it went on without any trouble. I was not to fond of the stiffness after it dried. So I am hoping that the new paint I pick up at the quilt show will work better for me in her hair.  I do like how the Ocean Current quilting came out.  I have decided not to paint the green, but I picked up some new thread and hope to add one more color of green to the land.

I didn't want to add any more words to her so my remaining ribbons will be filled in with micro stippling. I outlined the edges with a tight satin stitch and used a purple thread. 

My Affirmation Goddess Quilt

I now have a good start on my Goddess. I picked the affirmations that I wanted to use and still have a few more to put on. But I am very pleased with the progress so far. I not sure if I will fill all of the ribbons with words, or phrases yet. 

WIP: MY AFFIRMATION QUILT

Wednesday, Jan 9, 2013

I finally stated Leah's wonderful Express Your Love Goddess quilt. I have her traced and the outline stitching half done.  Over the past few days I have been thinking about the words I would like to add to her. I do know that at the top of my list is "I am enough".  I was not sure if calling it an affirmation quilt would work so I looked up the definition and found two that seemed to fit

l. Noun: A statement asserting the existence or the truth of something

2. Noun: The act of affirming or asserting or stating something

Here is the rest of my possible words, or statements

l. Intentionally seeking good

2. Breathe

3. That was then, this is now, breathe

4. As you think, so you are (Buddha)

5. Open heart, open mind

6. Open up your mind

7. Life is fluid, things change