Cross-learning

Is there really a word or concept such as "cross-learning?"  I don't know, but sometimes I get creative with words as well as fabric.  What I mean is that you may learn a new technique and then decide that it is not for you.  When you move on to a new project you suddenly realize that something you learned in the discarded technique will be helpful now.

The quilt I am re-working has lots of seams and points that require matching and/or aligning.  This is tedious and often requires post-stitching adjustments, which are a nuisance, so I made a proactive, minor adjustment.  Below is the original pattern:

Six points to bring together perfectly.  Urggggggh!

Notice that six points come together in the center.  This can be a challenge, and with the high contrast any displacement will be noticeable to the eagle eye of a judge.  I changed the the pattern so that the larger triangles on top are combined and cut as one big one.  The two bottom parts are stitched together and the single, big triangle is added last.

One single triangle.  Now to put it onto the bottom pieces.

This is where my experience with paperless paper piecing comes in.  I folded the seam allowance over heat resistant plastic, painted starch on the fold and then ironed.  This provides a straight, crisp fold.  In the photo below it doesn't look very straight because the heat-resistant plastic warps a bit up and down, but the edge actually remains straight.  I had to stick pins through the plastic to hold it steady as I couldn't manage to hold it, turn the seam allowance and paint all at the same time with acceptable results.  I only have two hands!

TIP:  Try cork board under your ironing board cover.  This is where it is extremely useful.

Folding the seam allowance.

Next I laid the triangle right side up on the lower part of the block (also right side up), aligned the crisp fold carefully so no points had cut-off tips.  Then I squeezed a little clear Elmer's glue in the seam allowance and pressed.

Pinned in place ready to glue and press.

After pressing I opened up the big triangle and stitched along the seaming crease.  Perfect every time!  This saved time, curse words, hair pulling and un-stitching.  The crease you see in the triangle from tip to bottom assisted in matching the center of the triangle to the center seam of bottom piece.

Creases help in the attempt of achieving perfection.

TIP:  I had to stitch in the crease over several layers of fabric in some places.  I found that a stylus helped me to stay in the ditch of the crease as well as kept the seam allowance from rumpling up under the needle.

TIP:  I know I sound a bit OC (obsessive-compulsive).  I'm not, but I make every quilt as though it is going to be shown.  If you are interested in showing a quilt and maybe winning a prize you must start at the very beginning by being as fussy as possible, and that means perfect points.

Stitching all done:

All it needs now is to have the edges trimmed.

This is a perfect example of a part of a discarded technique being used to good advantage elsewhere.  It is amazing how the little things you learn along the way can help solve future problems.

Sew some happy seams this week.  I wish you the opportunity to combine techniques for a satisfying outcome.

Needle Nirvana and Beautiful Backs

Needle Note
I got caught out of school last week.  One reader asked me what size needle I use for Kimono silk.  I must confess that I was using a #12/80 Topstitch.  Then I went to the list of articles compiled on the Superior Threads site and found that I was not using the optimal sized needle.  I  went through my bucket of needles and found one #8, which they recommend.  My needle threader broke it in half!  I don't know if the needle was defective or if the threader is too vigorous, but I will be purchasing some more #8 needles.  Meanwhile, I pulled a #10 Microtek out of the stack and used it.  Oh my gosh:  It was like sewing butter.  I love the finer needle for the silk and my FMQ (free motion quilting) is so much smoother with the smaller needle.  It goes through all the layers of the quilt sandwich without a hitch.

TIP:  Never stop learning!  Use the right size needle for your thread.  You will be so happy.  In my case  the #12 was OK and didn't cause problems, but the #10 works so much better.  Maybe #8 will be better still.

Create a Beautiful Back
1.  Make sure the backing of the quilt sandwich is firmly secured as you compile the layers and pin them together.  It should not be stretched super tight, but it should not be loose either - just firmly smoothed out and fastened down with painters' tape or clips until pinned.  This will avoid nasty tucks on the back.  Grains must be straight on both top and backing.

2.  Using a small sandwich of the same materials as your quilt, work out your optimal tension.  This may vary from quilt to quilt.   You don't want "pokies" of bobbin thread showing on the front or top thread showing on the back.  You don't want weird lines pulling at rounded forms.  You don't want thread loops snaking up.  Continue to check the tension periodically as you work on your quilt. Sometimes the tension slips or maybe your bobbin case needs cleaning.

Here you can see red "pokies".  They are bits of bobbin thread
showing because the top tension is too tight.

3.  If you are new at FMQ or still not confident with your ability, choose a busy fabric as backing.  The stitching irregularities will be less obvious in the confusion of a noisy design.  Practice will ultimately improve your stitching competence.

Busy fabric obsures the quilting to some extent.

4.  Eventually you will find that using a non-busy fabric and colored bobbins will make the back look like a similar, but different quilt.  I began using top and bobbin thread the same color so that "pokies" would be obscured (note:  it is smarter to check and adjust your tension!).  Imagine my surprise when I turned the quilt over and discovered how pretty the back looked.

My first step out of obscurity.  My stitching is not always the greatest, but I got
lots of practice on this 72 x 72 in quilt.  Even lacking perfection it makes 
interesting texture accentuated by thread color.

Continued practice brought confidence.  
Back of "Butterflies in My Garden."  See front.

Back of "Fenestra Rosa".  See front.

Bigtop (see front) is a spiral quilt where some of the quilting overlay looks hit and miss on the front because the thread color melts into some of the colors of the piecing.  However,, the overlay designs can be seen clearly on the back (seals and clowns - click to enlarge).  I SID-ed the lines of the spiral with gray Bottom Line in the bobbin.  I purposely used the gray instead of black because I thought the lines would suggest the high wires and tightropes of a circus without being a distraction.

TIP: Don't forget that the back of your quilt is an important element and should look just as nice as the front.  Show judges check the back as carefully at they do the front.

Sew a happy seam this week.  I wish you a beautiful backside.

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Dixie Saga

I had a wonderful day in mid-May at a class taught by Barbara Yates Beasley on creating a quilt from the photo of an animal.  She is a good teacher, organized and professional, and I had a lot of fun.  In this post I will share with you what I learned.

Class
One of the requirements of the class was to have a full-sized photo of our animal.  The size was limited so mine is 12 x 16 inches.  We brought a piece of muslin for the background of our projected quilt and a piece of foam core board on which to work.  We taped our photo to the board and were each given a large piece of clear mylar (acetate), which we laid on top of the photo.  Using a fine-tip, black Sharpie we outlined areas of different value and/or color.  If we made a mistake we had a tiny bottle of alcohol and a cue tip, which erased Sharpie ink lines.  It was nice because the ink does not rub off or smudge, but we can still correct misdrawn lines.  Using a pencil or brown Sharpie (I prefer pencil because it is erasable) we lightly traced the drawn lines from the mylar onto the muslin to serve as a guide for arranging fabric pieces.

Drawing on mylar (acetate)

TIP:  Painter's masking tape is a must to keep the photo and/or the muslin in place while working.

The next step was to turn the mylar over and write "Pattern" on the back somewhere to remind us which side was front and which was back.  Working from the WRONG (i.e. Pattern) side we traced one area from the mylar pattern on Steam-a-Seam 2 Lite (this is the only fusible she would allow us to work with in her class).  It has paper on both sides of the fusing material.  Once drawn we cut roughly around it, removed the paper backing, and ironed it onto the WRONG side of the fabric.  Finally we cut the pattern piece about 1/16 inch outside the line we had drawn on the fusible paper and removed the remaining piece of paper.  Once cut we could lay the piece on the muslin in its proper place, fusible side down, where it clings lightly.  Once the animal is done you cut pieces for the background, tuck them in under the edges of the animal, and when satisfied that all is right, iron the whole thing (animal and background) down to the muslin.

We took our project home to finish (I still had a lot to do).  It was easy to transport as we put the mylar over the whole thing and the pieces that were already in place stayed where they belonged with the foam core board supporting all.  Slick!

Home
I got busy at home and soon found that the fabric was running the asylum.  I totally lost control and my dog didn't look very good...except the eyes, which are perfect (see last week's post).  I decided to start over... except for the eyes and a few pieces around them.  I also felt that I was missing an in-between value of brown and needed some more fabric.  Sound familiar?  Since I was in Seattle for a couple of weeks it wasn't too hard to find time for a mother-daughter quilt shop jaunt.  After that I felt better about my doggie.

Once home, I was excited to try a new tack.  I created a black and white posterized version of the photo in Photoshop.  This is a great way to define value.  Using alcohol I erased all the Sharpie lines on the mylar that defined the out-of-control portions and redrew them from the new image version.  Then I restarted the trace and cut process, using the black and white image as a value gauge and the color photo as a color guide.  I finally ended up with a pretty good likeness of my cute pet.

Posterized black and white to show values clearly

Next week I will write an evaluation of my experience with two methods of creating with fusible so stay tuned.

Sew a Happy Seam this Week.

Paper Piecing Large

I'm Home!  I have been to Annapolis (MD), Palm Beach (FL), Austin (TX), home for 4 days, Seattle (WA), through Grand Teton NP (in low clouds and rain!), and finally home for the summer.  One funeral, three graduations and great fun with family and friends.  Coast to coast in a car.

I took my sewing machine in for its annual check-up.  All is well.  It has accomplished 1,158,894 stitches in 13 months.  You needed to know that, right?  It has now been relegated to a storage shed so my sewing room can be repurposed as a bedroom for a week for a visting granddaughter.  My sewing room is so squeaky clean and uncluttered that I don't recognize it.  I still have a fusible project of my little dog to work on until company arrives, but won't need the machine for awhile.

Reporting in.  A few weeks ago I showed you a computer-generated spiral for my next quilt, and was concerned about getting the paper piecing accomplished.  The problem is that the spiral is 18 inches long and my Sulky Paper Solvy is only 11 inches long.  I ended up digitally "cutting" the pattern and printing it in three pieces.  I cut those pieces roughly and aligned all the lines using the dotted lines as guides.  Then I fastened them together with surgical paper tape, turned it over and cut off the overlapping edges.

Pattern printed, cut apart and and ready to tape together

TIP:  You could butt the edges together if you want, but I find that it is easy to miss perfection when taping with this method.  Even a slight misalignment could skew the whole spiral.

Wearing my Senior Tester hat I grabbed some stash fabric and paper pieced the reconstructed spiral.  It worked beautifully so I can enthusiastically recommend this method.  I confess that I had some of the tape on hand, but haven't looked in the pharmacy to see if they still sell it.  Note to self:  check it out.

Tester stitched.

Sew a happy seam this week.

Inspiration

Where do you find inspiration?  Everywhere I look I find ideas for my quilting, and by that I mean the sewing and design as well as the actual stitching for the final sandwich of a quilt.  I see design in nature, wrought iron gates, fabric designs, shadows, other peoples' quilts, and many other places.  My brain sucks in ideas and I collect pages from magazines and put markers in books with interesting art.  Now and then I even look through those sheaves of paper and paper-sprouting volumes.

I mentioned in previous posts that in spite of what I thought was careful planning I have ended up spending way too many hours un-sewing my beautiful plans.  After the latest rip session to remove realistic thread painted fires I snugged down excess fabric with grid quilting.  Then I cut pieces of three different fabrics into interesting shapes originally drawn on freezer paper.  I laid these out over  each other and the grid quilting to suggest fire.  It looked far better than a realistic rendition of flames and reminded me of a bed of coals.  This is so perfect because it does not detract from the thread painted bird, which is the main attraction, but suggests that he is rising out of a hot place.

Fabrics and some of the freezer paper patterns

I was reluctant to tie up all my fabric by ironing fusible onto it before cutting shapes.   I wanted to be sure that all was well with the design in situ.  I cut the fabric pieces and played helter-skelter with different arrangements.  When I was satisfied I fused MistyFuse to the back of each piece.  This was a real nuisance as it was hard to manage the flimsy fusing material and cut it into the necessary shapes.  I then ironed each piece of fabric and its matching MistyFuse onto parchment paper, and then trimmed around the now paper-backed fabric to get rid of any fusible material sticking out from the edges.  Lastly I removed the paper.  I do not recommend this method, but I didn't want to waste fabric or fusible on an uncertain outcome so I did it the hard way.  It was successful anyway and I love the final, fused result on the quilt.

TIP:  Be sure to protect your iron and ironing board with heat-resistant teflon, silicone or fiberglass sheets when fusing.  I also have a teflon iron shoe, which covers the sole plate of my iron so I don't have to clean it when I am done.

One raw-edged appliqué group stitched down over the grid
(looks very bright in isolated photo - more subtle on the quilt)

Shows more of the appliqués.  The red, dotted fabric seems to sparkle.

What does all this have to do with inspiration?  Inspiration was provided by the sun as I came in from walking the dog before breakfast.  My quilt was lying on a card table and the early morning sunshine shone through a window from a low angle.  It lit up the grid design under the appliqué and made it look incredible.  The grid even showed up lightly where the appliqué was fused on top of it.  Ten minutes later the sun had moved on and the effect was gone.  After seeing that, I don't think I will do the McTavishing, but am going to try it some more on a tester before I decide for sure.  I may very well leave it as it is. There is no need to do more quilting except for design purposes and the sideways light is really beautiful on it.

Sunlight on the grid (lump is from quilt being folded over itself)

This last photo is the best reflection of the subtlety of the appliqué.  The background under the appliqué is made up of three different fabrics sewn together in wavy lines like in landscape quilts.  All together it looks like one piece of fabric.

TIP: Sometimes less is better.  Let the ideas percolate as I have said before.  I percolated today as I went into the National Park and walked across (yes, across) Bear Lake.  It was frozen and had a big snowman in the middle of it about 7 ft. tall!

Snowman on Bear Lake; Hallett peak in back.

Sew a happy seam this week.

Arise

I just did a crazy quiz on Facebook about what mythical creature you are most like.  It determined that I am a Phoenix.  How appropos!  The quiz was run by magicquiz.com and gives the definition of a phoenix as, "Associated with hope, immortality, and regeneration, a phoenix rises from the flames to become an even better version of themselves" (no attribution).  This is a perfect description of my quilt that has spent its days skirting disaster.

I have never had a quilt that posed so many difficulties or plans gone awry in spite of careful thought beforehand.  If I can get the rest of the quilting done without problems, it will definitely be a better version of my original plan.  My granddaughter's design is beautiful, but the problems arose in creating a workable version of her drawing in fabric.

The latest is the decision to quilt the "ground" or bottom third of the quilt with navy on three different dark fabrics.  Looks great with magnifying glasses and bright light.  Doesn't show up with normal vision.  Doesn't do a thing for the quilt.  Makes the fires look like they are floating in space.  The best laid plans have gone awry again.

I bravely fooled around with some quilting using red Isacord thread. The McTavishing makes me think of hot coals.  I like it.  Out came the ripper and I un-quilted some (not all) of the navy stitches.  The redo in red around the flames is very satisfying.  I love it.  Note the difference between the red quilting in the center and the navy quilting in the lower left.  The red truly provides visual clues that the bird is rising out of the fire, but doesn't take away from the brilliance of the Phoenix.  It warms the dark fabric so it blends nicely in color and temperature with the rest of the quilt.

Red McTavishing

 Maybe I will get this project done after all.

TIP:  What can I say?  Persist like the Phoenix.  Perfection is an almost unattainable goal, but there is nothing wrong with striving toward it.  Just don't wear out your fabric!

Sew a happy seam today.

Thread Painting Prep Technique on Trial

I can finally see the light at the end of the Phoenix tunnel.  The bird is on the quilt and I am quilting the lower third where fire burns under the bird.  I hope to be done by the end of the month.

So...what is next?  I will be doing a thread painted portrait of my grandson.  Those of you who follow me regularly have seen my first attempt.  My colors were wrong so I will be shopping for thread in brown tones to accommodate his Asian skin.  Forget the pink!  I will also be trying a new technique.

Original Photo

There are three methods for prepping a portrait to be thread painted.  For all three you posterize a black and white version of the photo in an image editing program (I use Photoshop).  This will give you delineation of the values needed (4-6 is best).  Any more than 6 values and you will probably go crazy.  There are three ways to carry on from here.

Posterized black and white

1.  Using fusible fabric.  Print two copies on freezer paper, one as a guide, the other to cut into pattern pieces.  You don't have to cut every teeny, weeny dot; the cuts can be a bit more general.  The pattern pieces and the guide must all be carefully marked.  Lea McComas  has an excellent system, which she describes in detail in her book, "Thread Painted Portraits."  The cut pattern pieces are used to cut fabric to which fusible material has been applied.  Again, her book has all the details and photos to help.  I used this method for my bird and I like the depth that is achieved.  Not all parts are completely covered with thread so the underlying fabric peeks through and adds richness to the texture.  The example below is loosely thread painted as I wanted to give the illusion of ruffled feathers.  The point here is that the different fabrics add to the illusion.

Ruffled feathers on the Phoenix

2.  Using a photo printed on fabric.  I took a class from Lea and saw some work she has done with this method.  You back your fabric with freezer paper and print the black and white, posterized photo right onto fabric that has been treated so the ink won't run. The thread painting covers the black and white ink and is not noticeable unless you really look closely.  Click to enlarge and look between thread lines to see the gray background.  That's what I did with my first attempt at a portrait.  This portrait was not successful because of the colors of thread I chose.  The prepping was fine and I would call that part successful.

Practice piece (bad thread colors)

TIP:  If you are afraid to run fabric through your printer you can print on Sulky Sticky and stick it to  your fabric.  Even if you have to print on two pieces and match with a small overlap it works fabulously.  I cut my printed Sulky Sticky out around the head and shoulders so my background fabric remained uncovered.  A big plus is that you don't take a chance of ruining the background fabric and/or your printer when printing.  You also don't have to send it out to one of the companies that will print it for you (unless you plan on a huge quilt).

3.  Printing with color on fabric (or Sulky Sticky).  I am a Photoshop junkie so this may not work for you if you don't have any interest in or expertise with a photo imaging program.  I made my black and white posterized image and then, with the free-form pencil on a separate layer I traced around the lightest value and filled that space with the lightest color I intend to use.  Then on another layer I traced and filled the next darker value with that darker color. . . and so on.  It took me a lot less time than cutting little, irregular pieces of fabric.

Two of the color values traced (each is on its own layer in Photoshop)

Instead of printing black and white I will print the color version and use matching colors of thread, blending the edges where different colors meet.

Posterized color version ready for printing

This is my own idea so I will have to let you know how it works.  I also have to test the ink on Sulky Sticky to make sure is won't run.  I can do that with the practice version that I made in December.   I am thinking out loud here.  We'll see how it works. . .

. . . but I have to FINISH the Phoenix first!

TIP:  Plan ahead.  That way you have plenty of time to work out at least some the bugs before you start sewing the next project.  I hate UFOs.

Sew a happy seam this week.

Lemonade

When life serves you lemons, make lemonade.  What a concept for life and for quilting.  If you hadn't guessed it yet, I am a flea on a hot stove, except when I am hiking (when I am really slow!).  My excitement and anticipation sometimes get me into trouble when I enter my sewing room and plow forward with determination.  That is why my faithful readers get to vicariously walk through a lot of obstacles on my blog.  I try so hard to achieve perfection, but remain quite good at making mistakes.  However, I usually am able to figure out a way to solve the problems I create, so I share.

I put together the white and the black background of the quilt.  Then I pieced the side panels and machine appliquéd them onto that background.  There was some excess black on the left side, which I intended to cut back once the sides were sewn down on top of it.  I forgot!  I didn't even think of it again....until I quilted one of the orange triangles.  It was very clear that there was black fabric behind half of it with a very visible straight edge.  It SCREAMED at me under the light fabric.  I was not going to redo the quilt or remove all the quilting that was keeping me from getting at it.

Black fabric behind upper orange triangle

So I set the "lemon" aside and did some other things that needed doing.  Then I made some Christmas presents.  Then there was lots of cooking for Thanksgiving at the last minute because icy roads prevented us from joining family for the celebration.  By this time several days had gone by, and I had finally decided what to do.

The background quilting of the offending triangle was very tightly sewn so I made a mock-up with scraps showing the black behind the orange, and then did the same kind of quilting with the same color thread.  Why?  I needed a tester.  I tried some paint, but that looked awful.  Than I wanted to see if I could take out the heavy quilting without ruining the fabric.  YES!  It worked, so I carefully ripped out the quilting of the one unsightly triangle.  It took a couple of hours and a good audio book.  Then I sprayed water on the fabric to relax the fibers and rubbed a soft toothbrush around to gently induce the needle holes to disappear.  The fabric looked a bit used, but not damaged.  Once the fabric and batting were dry I opened the triangle and carefully snipped out as much of the nasty black fabric as I could reach without cutting the quilt top.  I couldn't get it all, but as you can see below, there is no longer an eye-catching straight line of black.  A little bit is still there, but could be mistaken for a shadow or a natural dark spot in the batik fabric.  At least I hope it looks like that!  All has now been repaired, the area re-quilted, my enthusiasm restored and I am excited to move on.

After snipping out the black and redoing the area - not perfect, but OK (I hope)

TIP:  It is discouraging to make a distracting error, so leave it for awhile as you ponder solutions and decide on options.  This took me a few days.  I don't recommend tossing it in the closet until next year.  If I did that I wouldn't remember my plans for finishing and that might lead to more ripping.

I successfully finished the background quilting and some of the pieced side borders - still more to do on the sides.  The black at the bottom will be quilted after the bird is in place.  (Don't worry, it is not crooked, but is hanging wonky with a rumple in the middle - nothing permanent.)

Background quilted and ready to receive the bird.

Below is the back.  I wish I had put colored thread in the bobbin for the straight lines on the pieced side parts.  Oh well, I think I will do that as I quilt the rest of those pieced parts.

Reminds me of the Mediterranean designs.

Battle Plan

Cathy commented on my last post about my "battle plan."  Unfortunately, I had been been battling with emotions rather than plans.  Struggling with testers. Figuring out how to do it.  Jayne Bentley Gaskins responded to my email about the thread painting problem even though she was busy setting up a second home in VA.  She kindly shared her expertise and encouraged me to stay with it and try to use the bird that is already thread painted.  So I sat down and did some more testing.  I am going to go for it.  I am so glad to have my decision made.  After two weeks of waffling I am ready to move forward with a true battle plan.

TIP:  When you have a fail and want to move on it helps to walk away for awhile, do something else and let the ideas percolate.  In time it all settles into place and your brain adapts to new possibilities.  Mistakes often evolve into new techniques.

TIP:  Don't be afraid to contact other quilters even if they are well-known and published.  If they don't answer, no loss, but quilters are some of the nicest people with whom I have ever associated.  In my experience they are kind and willing to share.

I have begun the tedious job of drawing the background design on a new piece of fabric.  I say tedious, because it involves drawing precise lines with Micron pens, which are very permanent.  These lines must be measured as exactly as I can manage so I spent two-plus hours working very carefully. Measure twice, check it out, measure again, say a prayer, and draw the line.  I made two slight errors:  one will be painted over and I hope the bird will cover the other.  If not, I will figure out something on the fly, an extra feather or something.  There is a lot more to do, but the areas with the 1/2 inch grid are finished > sigh of relief.  Fatigue reared its ugly head so it was time to quit for the day.

Grid with freezer paper to guide the extent of design so I don't waste
my Inktense pencils.

What did I do differently and better?  I planned out the lines of the background design better.  I will no longer have the bird eating a golf ball.

From the trashed quilt.

I will no longer have a black line of pieced fabric lining up with a black line of background.  I thought that looked a little funny, but I couldn't do anything about it first time around and was just glad I could line them up exactly rather than slightly off.  Now I don't have to worry about that as the point will be in a section of grid rather than on the edge.

From the trashed quilt.

I painted the crosswise, dividing lines with Inktense pencils and got a deeper, more vibrant color this time.  I masked each line with masking tape and was able to pencil harder and darker because I didn't have to worry about going out of the lines.  I used a popsicle stick to rub the tape down tight so no color could escape.  Same thing when I applied the fabric medium over the pencil.  Much easier.  I don't know if it saved time or not, but I am pleased with the results.  Compare the painted black lines in the above photo with the new ones below.

Lines done and masking tape in place for the next one.

I have a lot more painting to do while the bird just relaxes behind my sewing machine waiting for its resurrection.  Actually, it kind of looks dead doesn't it?  Spooky!  Just wait....

Sew a happy seam this week.

Testing Always Works - NOT

I spent a lot of time testing materials and techniques for my Phoenix bird and was confident that I had the process carefully planned.  In March I wrote:

Quilting

Normally I don't worry much about my quilting ahead of time although it does bang around in my head as I work.  However, on this project I have thought a lot about how to quilt the painted background so I tried some of my ideas.  When I looked at the results I realized that there was way too much interest and texture.  The problem is that the bird will be very flat after all the thread painting and I don't want the background to cause visual interference.  My new decision is to do McTavishing with champagne-color, silk thread.  This will tame the beast and still look really nice, maybe a little like smoke from the fire below the bird.  It will allow the bird to fly. 

Now the bird is done, the fire is done and one side of the painted background is McTavished.  The result?  I don't like it at all, even though it looks great on the back:

Backside Quilting 

Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the front, which may be stuck in Adobe Lightroom, which won't open.  Computer frustration is as bad as quilting frustration.  Anyhow, the background is very geometric (thread painting of the bird has not been done in the photo below):

Note background here

When I looked at the McTavishing I had done, I felt it fought with the background design with bumps and poofs that didn't align with the geometry.  The bird is so vivacious and colorful that the background couldn't possibly outshine it.  So I ripped out all the McTavishing, and did precise, tight, geometrical fillers in each section of the background.  BTW  the thread was silk and it is strong and slippery so is relatively easy to rip out...the operative word here is "relatively."

Here is an example of what I finally decided to do with the background:

New background quilting plan

It eats up the extra fabric that was created by the thread painting, but there are still problems, which I will describe next week.

TIP:  Testing is very important in the development of your quilt, but remain flexible because things don't always work out as planned.  (Stay tuned).

Sew a happy seam this week.

More Hoffman Challenge Quilts

Today I have more Hoffman Challenge quilts.  If you didn't see the ones I posted last week, just scroll down to my last post.

More elephants.  I love this parade.

A colorful, pretty sampler.

Isn't this horse a beauty?

More of the popular elephant theme.

Whimsical and fun.

This was very unusual design with color that really caught my eye.

Lovely appliqué and nice quilting.

Great dancing gypsy.  I loved the use of the challenge fabric in this one.

The intricate design caught my fancy on this one.

An interesting "modern" quilt.  It was sad to see the obvious fold lines, and they were a distraction on many of the quilts.  I can only assume that they were packed too tightly for their trip to Loveland.  However, it was a great show.  It is fun to see how all different quilters use the same fabric.