2/1/10

We have a finish

Remember that one of my NY resolutions is to finish projects? During January, most of my time was spent making curtains and pillow shams and adding labels and sleeves to quilts, but in the last week of the month, I managed to pull off an FFO (finally finished object)!

This is that 11 block square log cabin quilt I've been teasing you with. The feathers are free motion but on stems that were drawn with stencils that I made myself. Now, in retrospect, those stencils were a big waste of time and template plastic because I could have traced all those curves around the same dessert plates I traced around to make the stencils. But they were good experience.



I have thoroughly enjoyed giving myself permission to free motion feathers. I was always so worried about my ability to space the curves and do all that backtracking that I wouldn't try, but I can say that with a little practice, they get pretty easy. When you don't have the drawn lines to follow, nothing looks like a mistake. Following my goal to completely finish projects, I even got the sleeve and the label on before we hung it.





In addition to finishing this, I managed to get a bunch of HST's cut for that baby quilt I'm making. It's going to be 49 four inch pinwheels, using white and 7 different blues. The pattern I'm following used 7 different pastel batiks, so I can't wait to see if my little adaptation looks as good as the original.
I'd like to say we keep a perfect house, but we don't. What we do manage to keep the level of dust to a minimum since both Rob and I are very allergic to it. We always know it's time when we find ourselves sneezing at the same moment and we look at one another with that sad, red eyed look. While we both struggle with allergies, dust is the only thing that affects us both, so if it's just one of us sneezing, no need to clean, but when it's both, pull out the dust rags.
Take care and have a great Monday. I'm already feeling it. It's gonna be a good week. Must be a good night's sleep from being able to breathe. Lane

10 comments:

Becky said...

Yeeeeeek!!!!! It is absolutely beautiful!!!!! What a fantastic job you did. love it.

Tammy said...

Hi Lane,
Your quilt is beautiful and so are your feathers! Very, very nice work. Most excellent!

CC said...

What a gorgeous quilt..you do such beautiful work..it's just wonderful..I love all the colors.

marlene@ByTheSeam said...

That is a super neat quilt. Love the colors in it and your quilting is great. Was that a pattern or did you design it?

Snooze said...

I love the colours and the feathers stitching looks fantastic. Definitely something I've got to try. Well done for the first FFO ... and shame about the housecleaning! I'm allergic to dust too and it's not fun (dust or the housecleaning!).

Patricia said...

Lane---I want to be like you when I grow up!! Absolutely love your quilt. I am sorta a geometric girl and that quilt is right up my alley!!! The feathers are a wonderful "opposite"--such a modern-style quilt with a traditional quilting pattern. I can't tell you how many books I have on quilting feathers and still I am nervous about it. Your feathers would have been perfect for "the" quilt. I am going to come back and "drool" on that picture a lot!! Congratulations!!!

My grandson is asthmatic so I have to really "try" to keep the house clean. I am thinking though of just getting him a good gas mask to wear (like the kind I use for fabric dyeing) since I would rather quilt than clean
:-) and that would certainly filter out that pesky dust.

Hugs!

lw said...

The quilt is really cool-- kind of an extended card trick, but I love how the feathers soften the geometry.

Three suggestions that have helped me with allergies and asthma: take a high quality omega-3 fatty acid (fish oil, like Arctic or Carlson's or Solgar) twice a day, severely limit the amount of sugar you eat, and use a xylitol nasal wash once or twice a day (like xlear.) I'm doing great except with the sugar part...I'm struggling with that a little bit. But the rest of it helps so much that I only use antihistimines about once every four months instead of almost every day.

Quiltluver said...

Wow! You did a great job with the feathers. I love that quilt pattern and the colors you chose too. Karen

Shirley said...

Stunning Lane! It reminds me of a quilt called Strata Various. Great colour choices And your feathers turned out wonderfully.

Vesuviusmama said...

It is simply stunning, Lane. Well done!