WHAT THE HECK

This quilt is a gift and, as such, I want it to look nice.  Just the same, I don't want to take out stitching to that end.     I drew a chalk line as a guide. (By the way, this is the same triangle in which I had stitched that creature.  Spritzing is magical)

I stitched the spine right to left and then made the feather left to right.   I doubled back on the spine and stitched the top part of the feather.  It will have to do.

Over and Over again.

 I have a quilt READY for the frame.  I just don't know how I am going to quilt it.   It has a fair amount of negative space.  Originally I designed the quilt around a couple of stenciled squares.  I am just very bad at tracing.  I ripped out those squares and replaced them with  15 inch muslin squares.  They are on point in the quilt which means there is that much more negative space.

I thought that I could divide the square up into quadrants and quilt a feather in each one.  I got out the white board and practiced over and over again.

 I have so much flippin' trouble with the bottom of each feather.  I don't like the look.  Then I realized that the Nolting doesn't have enough of a reach to quilt a 15 inch block on point.

I decided to stitch a three inch border on each block.  Oh boy, ruler work practice!

I tried a variation on a scrap moving the bottom to the outside edge so they all wouldn't meet in the middle.  Not happy.  But it was fun playing.  I totally messed up the fourth one and just decided to work the machine over the pattern and played with some inside echoing.  I had fun.  Looks like hell, but I had fun.

So then I decided to just fill the whole middle with the large, flamboyant feather.  I finally was able to consistently draw one I like:

It just didn't come out the same when I quilted it.  I am having trouble at the top now, but the bottom is looking better. 
  Lisa had come by to get some parts for her 128 VS and after we finished in the shop, I showed off the Nolting.  I made her try it out.  She has a good eye/hand coordination.  It took me months to be able to stipple the way she does. ( her example is in the border)

I am actually not unhappy with this feather but I would like the feathers to be less bulky.  It is easy to draw them thinner, but the machine just wants to go

I set up some more practice pieces ( an old sheet and a very thin, flannel blanket.  Oh did THAT affect the tension. Yes it did ) and came up with this:

I am still having issues with the top.  If it's not the top, it's the bottom.  I can fix the top problem, though.  I must start lower and make the last feather above where I start before I come back down to begin the next side.  I tried to make a paisley but it just didn't work out.

Lisa had suggested that I continue the cross hatching in the borders.  That's more ruler work.  I don't have a long ruler so I experimented with curved lines.  I like them a lot.  I will merely draw a line on the fabric and not bother to stitch it when I actually create this design on the quilt.

There are only two large squares in the quilt.  There are some setting triangles.  So figuring out that design is next.  Oh, yeah, and how to do the blocks themselves.  Probably ruler work