It's a work in progress...

Remember this from a couple posts ago?

 

 

This my interpretation of the Black and White Challenge our local guild is doing. 

The challenge put to us was to do a black and white quilt with one or two colors added

equally less than 25%.  The quilt must be no less than 120"

in circumference and no more than 160". 

 

"The Butterfly", as I have named it, was not my first choice.  But after a

cutting disaster with my first idea, I kinda lost my quilting mojo for

a while.  And the butterfly idea came to me in the 11th hour.

 

Well I am almost finished quilting it (thank goodness because it's due Thursday)

and thought I'd share some photos of what I've done so far.

 

Coming up with the idea of how to quilt it was the hardest part I think.  It always is for me...especially now that I'm doing my own quilting...how to quilt within my

current abilities.  After several failed attempts, I came up with

a diamond shaped frame and feathers.  It was a start.

 

Once I had the basic shapes drawn onto the quilt top, I started out by stitching around

the butterfly applique pieces and then set out to tackle the feathers next.  I practiced

a few quick feathers on an 18" x 20" piece of fabric to get the feeling back. 

  

 

My feathers were rusty but acceptable. 

And quilting black was going to be just fine.

 

 

The next step was to create a template for the feather spine for the four corners.  Since

all four corners were a mirror image of one another, I cut out one spine that fit them all.

 

 

Here is a shot of all four corners.  I didn't feather them all exactly alike because

1) I knew I wouldn't be able to do each exactly alike with my current ability,

and 2) I liked the idea of them being similar but not exactly the same.

 

 

FYI...the only thing that I actually quilted on the longarm is the feathers.  I've been doing everything else on my Husqvarna with a walking foot.  Straight lines and going around appliques are not in my barrel of tricks yet...but I'll get there...just not on a competition piece.

 

Here is where I was two days ago.  You can see the beginning of the diamond frame.

 

 

And here is where I'm at as of yesterday. 

 

All that's left now is to quilt something in the frame and then the quilt is ready for

blocking...ACK.  I've never blocked a quilt...let alone a black one!  Wish me luck. 

 

I'll be back later this week with a photo of the finished quilt.

 

Till next time...