Friday, December 7, 2012

FMQ Challenge - September and The Quilters Christmas Party!

September's challenge was presented by Paula Reid, whose tutorial challenged us to use a feather stencil for our sample piece.  At that time I was knee-deep in Christmas gift quilts to be completed and thought there would probably not be time to complete the challenge.  Our December challenge presented by Patsy Thompson which is all about quilted borders presented the perfect opportunity to accomplish two challenges with one little sampler quilt!  (Photos are not the best, the blue washout marker is not completely eliminated yet.)
I pieced a simple Amish style quilt with some Moda solids I had in my stash, probably not the colors I would have chosen had I gone to the LQS with a plan in mind, but serviceable for this project.  The square center panel contains the September stencil challenge.  It was surprisingly quick and easy to accomplish.  I didn't have the exact stencil Paula used in her tutorial, so some hand drawn facsimile corner feather detailing was added to a circle feather stencil I've had for years and never used.
When time permits additional background quilting will be done in the outer areas of the square.  I also plan to try hyperquilting in some of the feathers and the holly.

Now, on to the December Challenge with the three borders, but first a trip to the LQS for some red thread for the holly berries.  The only red shaded threads I had on hand were horrible and required unstitching early this morning. 

Last, but not least, don't forget SewCalGal's Quilters Christmas Party taking place on Sunday, December 9, in San Diego if you live nearby, and world-wide for quilty bloggers!   This party is a donation fund drive for a very worthy organization Operation Homefront which provides various types of assistance to our wounded returning military personnel and their families.  See SewCalGal's blog post here to find complete information, and please help support our military families!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

All these challenges/tutorials have kept us all "on our toes" and you have definitely achieved much! The feather motif is so nice and one, I imagine, you could use quite a lot in the future! I find myself looking at threads where ever I'm at and trying to keep to some type of plan(?). I tell myself that I do NOT need every shade of every color!!!!! OK, not too successful at that one...LOL! That little project will be fun to complete! Hugs......

Quilting Babcia said...

Do I ever know about all the colors in all the shades! And, I'm now finding I like the heavier weights sometimes, though generally use the Aurifil 50 wt. I am just now playing in one of the borders of the Dec. challenge with some Gutermann metallic - love it! And so far it's behaving in my machine, which I can't say for all threads!

Martha said...

WOW!! Your quilt turned out beautiful!!! Well done :^) I haven't started on the December Challenge, although I have been giving it a lot of thought!
I did a simple little tutorial for SewCalGal's virtual quilt party on Sunday, how awesome is she!!?? Amazing
Have a wonderful weekend! We are getting our tree tomorrow up in the mountains and hopefully in a little snow. On Sunday we are having a motorcycle toy run for our local children, busy times indeed!!! Take Care!!

Barbara said...

This is just beautiful!

Joan said...

Beautifully done!

Debbie said...

Wow, you have gotten this down. Your feathers and holly look wonderful. Great job.