Twenty years and done!

I knew I had started the current project a long time ago so I did a search of old messages from the rec.crafts.textiles.quilting newsgroup and found a posting I made mentioning it in April 2002, so yeah, 20 years... 

Snakes and Ladders (aka the black and white monster) is now finished! All quilted and bound (but not yet labelled - so is it really finished?) and in the washing machine to remove construction/quilting markings and dust and cat fluff of past and present.  My quilts all go through my washer and dryer - I can't be doing with something that needs super special care.  There were blue washable markings from 20 years ago on it that seemed to vanish OK when I dabbed them with tap water, so fingers crossed that everything washes out fully now.

Here is a proof of completion picture that I took before committing it to the laundry process.

Six ladders with feather and pebble quilting, nine snakes with five different patterns inspired by Native American snake designs, and a whole lot of black stippling on black fabric.  The feathers, pebbles and snakes were quilted with YLI White to Black machine quilting thread, the stippling with Aurifil black and I used The Bottom Line in black in the bobbin.  The batting is Warm and Natural.  Because of the dens quilting in the ladders the fabric was starting to draw up a bit so to prevent grief and puckers I decided to break the "rules" and after I had done the ladders I quilted the borders and added the binding before going on to quilt the final black sections in the quilt centre, it seemed to work - I haven't found any egregious pleats or the like on the back yet.

At the beginning of the month I set this as my One Monthly Goal and am delighted to be able to join the link up party for goals achieved!

Feathers and pebbles

Over the last two weeks I have made steady progress on my current quilt and have completed the feathers and the pebbles in the ladder sections. The pebbles were particularly challenging as it is very hard to see where you have already sewn with black/white/grey thread on black/white/grey fabric! I must have been crazy to decide on that colour scheme or I love my husband very much to indulge his monochrome preference in décor or, most likely a bit of both. On Sunday I took the quilt into his workplace while he was in and laid the whole shebang out on the big tables in one of the meeting rooms with lovely natural light.  

This was so that I could mark my quilting ideas for the spaces in between the ladders and in the borders.  As I was marking on plain black fabric I used a Clover white marking pen which I really like for this purpose. The "ink" is essentially a wax which shows up as the ink dries and disappears with a warm iron or moisture and does not have any chemical effect on the fabric.  The name of the pattern I used was Snakes and Ladders so having quilted my ladders now I am doing the snakes taking my inspiration from Native American art.

Today I added some extra pin basting along those edges to help prevent fabric shift and unwanted pleats, of course I had help for this activity!

With one full weekend yet to go in February I still hope to get this oldest UFO/WIP done by the end of the month.

A Belated Update and a Very Mature UFO

This is definitely a very occasional blog and often I seem to write when I am trying to make sure I don't let a project slip (back) into being a UFO (unfinished object).  I did get Christa's Colors finished last year and gifted it to my elder son's girlfriend for Christmas.  Here it is all finished, with some detail pictures too.

Last week I pulled out what is probably my oldest UFO to turn it back into a WIP.  I am not sure exactly when I started this but it was certainly well before we moved to the States in 2014, and from searching old posts from rec.crafts.textile.quilting it would appear that I was working on it in September 2002!!!  The pattern came from a book called "Quick Quilts to Make in a Weekend", a misnomer for sure, but I was suckered in by the title.  Once I had made the quilt top and sandwiched I was frozen into inaction by not knowing how to quilt it as it deserved.  Many years of piecing and quilting later I have acquired the skill set I needed then (probably could have done this some time ago but...) and also the confidence not to get hung up on imperfections that will not affect the functionality of the finished quilt.  My FMQ (free motion quilting) is definitely more controlled and I have started in on it.  Now my aim is to get it finished this month, so I am declaring it as my One Monthly Goal for February 2022.  Here it is under the needle last week and as it was earlier today after doing one of the six 6 foot long free form feathers and with the infill quilting on one side of the feather.

A google search on "free form feather quilting" led me to this site which has inspired me to do fill-in quilting between the feathers and the white bars.