Feathery Doings

I know, pretty cheesy title but some days I am desperate.  I threw my bricks quilt on Ruthie after I took off a customer quilt.  I want a few finishes for myself this month.  I bought a new edge to edge design called Feather Boa from Digitech Designs. I like how it looks on this quilt.  I'm using a beige So Fine thread on the top and bottom.  I should get this finished today.  Then back to customer quilts. 

Here's an idea for finishing my OMG quilt for February.  I realized that this quilt is made from the same block but turned to create the secondary design.  Very cool.  But, it doesn't lend itself to taking off some of the units on the side to make it rectangular.  And, I have about 9" of the green and the magenta and a bit more of the neutral.  Sigh.  And this doesn't work because I'm short on the magenta.

I'm wondering if it would be better if I turn the light triangles out and then have the light as the rest of the border with green and light four patches in the border.  But I still wouldn't have enough of the magenta.  Maybe I should put a small border of the magenta and then checkerboard of the green and beige?  (would I run out of fabric?) 

I went back up to the studio and moved some fabric around.  Here is another thought.  Hum, the triangles on the outer edge don't really work as it doesn't finish off the row.  I think, I like the magenta by itself.  Except, I don't have very much of it left.  

So, does anyone know what this fabric is called?  It was readily available 5 or 6 years ago.  And, it is a great basic.  Help!  Name? Anyone! Hum, I wonder if that "man.com" upside down on the label might be Hoffman... If I remember correctly it is the only fabric I purchased for this quilt.  Why didn't I buy more? 

It's time to finish off this post and get to stitching on the bricks quilt.  

I'm linking up with Can I Get a Whoop Whoop! and Wips Be Gone. 

And here's Ellie (and Daddy) wearing the jacket I embroidered for her birthday. They came for a short visit last Saturday.

Happy quilting all!  

Sometimes . . .

I just don't think before I do something . . .

All those little balls and white things are various parts of a feather pillow.

We have a very old feather pillow. The ticking cover is actually full size but the feathers only fill up about 1/3rd of the case. It is old, it smelled old. Bright thought -- I know I've read where people have washed their feather pillows. Heck, geese, duck they all get wet and it doesn't ruin their feathers. I'll just chuck this pillow in with the sheets and then air dry it. It'll smell so much better.

WRONG

Well, it could have been ok except for the "old" part. The ticking holding the feathers ripped apart in the wash. And that is what faced me when I opened the door to my front loading, high spinning washer. ACH!

Wet feathers almost every where.

My clean up plan actually worked, thank goodness.

First I cleaned out as many feathers as I could get and threw them in a trash can. Then, I put a beach towel on the floor and moved all the sheets to it. That whole pile went into the back yard where I tried to shake out as many feathers as I could. My blue shorts became nearly white.

Then I dried the sheets checking the drier every 10 minutes to clear the lint trap. And, I got my super sucker-upper vacuum cleaner to clean up the lint trap. After several vacuumings of the lint trap the sheets came out feather free and the drier is pretty much good to go.

Too bad the washer isn't as in good a shape. I vacuumed it also. Cleaned the flap as well as I could and now it is running on clean. I suspect I may have to do that a couple of times. Needless to say I won't be washing any more pillows -- well until I verify that you can wash newer pillows.

Before the exploding feathers I got several more of the Million Pieces blocks done. I've decided I need 63 and I currently have 50 done. This may actually get done in the near future. I also had some fabs picked out for the border but that won't work with the navy in the room where it is going. I'll peruse the stash again but I will probably succumb to purchasing a new border for it. Sigh.

(secretly Snoopy dancing at the thought of visiting new quilt shops!)

Quilting with Domestic Sewing Machine

One of the classes I took this weekend was quilting feathers.  Surprisingly, they aren't all that hard.   Or perhaps it is because I've been quilting stuff for a while on my Bernina.  

Here is my sample of feathers and circles. No, don't panic, I didn't do this freehand, although I could now if I wanted to.  

Here's the sample with the markings.  And, yes, I followed the line.  Actually, because you can't see the stitching lines all that well on the sample it looks pretty good.  But, believe me I was off the lines enough to make it obvious. 

And, here's the quilt Jen and I worked on while we learned to use the long arm machine.  Oh, boy, did I like that.  I've often thought it would be a pain to set it up and get it loaded.

  

Maybe because the piece was so 

small it wasn't that big of a deal.  It is about 31" square and will be my monthly quilt for Project Linus after I bind it.  

I didn't quilt at all yesterday.  Actually, I didn't do much except read and veg.  Now, I need to transport all the supplies I took back up to the studio.  And, then I need to work on a block.  

Happy Quilting All.  Bonnie