The quilting design process

Someone asked how I do it. So at the risk of asking you to watch paint dry, here is my process.

 I chose the area I wanted to work on, and traced it making sure to reverse the image and leave enough space outside the design area.

 I then went over the tracing with a Sharpie pen.

 Sometimes you get lucky and the very first thing you draw works. I liked this feather.

 But I still had that huge area above it and not enough room for a full flourish.

 This 2nd attempt was not any better.

 So I wondered about using the shape of the flowers as a motif. Nah, don't like that.

This feather in the opposite direction has made me happy. I still haven't decided what I shall do in that square where the bottoms of the flower vases/pots meet. My eraser is my friend. But tomorrow is another day.

quilts and gardens

As you see I'm 9/16ths through doing the middle of this quilt. Strangely I can quilt all day without my neck aching but this process means I have to stop every 1/2 hour or so. I love the way these spin.I bought seeds for the garden yesterday these are the fully hardy plants. I'll just scrape the soil and sprinkle them around. I find this a totally magical process. This is the first time I've seen the California poppies in a single colour other than orange. And these special Kew purple Godetia make my mouth water.

These are the half hardy ones, so they shall have to wait until mid May to be sprinkled about. If I could be bothered I could grow them in pots first and then plant out, but waiting is just so very much easier.


And I've treated the local birds to this bird feeder. The top is about 9' high so they should be safe from the cat and I'm hoping the blessed squirrels can't get up there.

Something quilty

Just to show I have been doing something quilty. I got one feather done after Will left on Wednesday, two yesterday and almost one today. Yesterday I got one of the new fence panels painted and today only about half of one as we had very impressive hail , so much so it was mentioned on the radio as it affected the motorways.Most of my life seems very mundane this week. Meeting a lawn guy, arranging another to give a quote, washing, supermarket shopping, you know how it is..
I forgot to mention on Monday, one of the local quilt groups turned up with 10 quilts for the children at the women's refuge. Aren't quilters wonderful!