Pride cometh before a fall

The photos here are just a tease. They're a couple of shots of "West of Paris, Texas". I can hardly believe that this beauty is coming out of my machine.

I was so inspired by the beautiful work I saw at Free Motion Quilting Challenge that I could hardly wait to sit and do some quilting. Feathers, because feathers are truly the most relaxing things to quilt...if I can relax and just let them flow. And, I've managed to relax and look what has flowed.

This first picture is from the center of the quilt. There are four blocks, each quilted with a feather wreath and then the crossing feathers in the longer strips. The longer strips were borne of mistakes that I made and I ripped and retried a couple of times. My last try resulted in one side of the twist and left half the block unquilted. So, I drew the other side and they were perfect together. Next, I just had to reproduce that happy accident three more times. The feathers in the green are from a stencil, but getting that to look just right took a bit of time. The lighter thread really shows up on the dark green sash, so it had to be darn near perfect. Several of those sections came out and were put back in before I was happy.

This next section shows the borders that surround the center. The braided border had to be marked for me to keep my lines of stitches straight. Again, marking that took time, but the result is worth it. Those bricks are also quilted in the ditch, so after washing, I should get a really great look there. And, the feathers are free hand on spines that I traced using bread plates from the kitchen. I used a larger plate in the corner and smaller plate in the straightaways.

All those feathers get a single outline around because I think that outline really sets off the quilting better. I don't fully understand why, because the outline seems to disappear around the main quilting and the main quilting shines brighter. When I compare something that has been outlined with something that hasn't, I can definitely see a difference.

So, I'm watching this perfect outlining come out of my needle and feeling the pride of good work. I get to a corner and reach kind of behind me and to the left and grab the corner of the quilt and flip it around and bang, there goes the coffee cup and I've spilt on the quilt back.

But did I shout a very ugly word and kick something? No, I did not. (not this time anyway) This is not my first time to make the coffee mistake. I seem to do this about once a year. And, I've learned that coffee stains do not have to be permanent. I cleaned up with a towel and blotted all I could out of the quilt and tied of the stitches and carried it to the kitchen and soaked the coffee spot. In my experience, that will blur the edges and blurring the edges goes a long way toward keeping this from looking like a stain. Even if there is some discoloration after I'm done, it won't be much and will fade into the surrounding fabric. Now, I'll finish my quilting and bind it and then I'll find that spot and rub a paste made of oxy-clean and resolve (formerly shout) into it and after that's washed, no more stain. At least historically that has worked and I'm sure (sure, sure, sure, sure!) that it will work this time.

Unfortunately, from now until it's properly washed, when I work on that quilt, my mouth will water and I'll crave coffee. Oh, well. I'm not going to give up my coffee and sewing, so better that I learn what to do when I have an accident.

Before I left home this morning, I went and checked on my stain. Most of the water was evaporated out and I could barely see the original spot.

Take care and have a great Tuesday.

Lane