APPLIQUE PAINTBOX-I LOVE APPLIQUE

IN WHICH APPLIQUE PAINTBOX BEGINS 

ITS THIRD YEAR OF BLOGGING

And here is what I have to show on this anniversary.  Progress on Nature's Notebook.  Veining on the leaves and petals, french knots, touches on the goldfinch, and some stems for wheat.  The petals were particularly troublesome.  I began with 60 wt sewing thread as recommended by the designer to detail the petal but I thought it was too coarse looking. I ended up (arggghh!) pulling out this detailing on 2 flowers and replacing it with a blue-gray 100 wt silk thread.  It was worth it.  

Here is helper kitten doing important quality control work.  She thinks her eyes look pretty next to the petals.  I included this photo as the petals are detailed in the 60 wt which you can see looks to heavy. (so hard to capture the correct colors).

May 1 will see the release of the new Aussie painted bird block (Yay!) and the appliqued color block.  2017 was without doubt the worst year of my life and for most the year my design wall was empty.  It is coming to life like the world in spring which makes me start happy dancing.

Three wonderful projects.  The gray and orange fabric is just an idea for developing the color scheme for the Imaginary Garden quilt by Yoko Saito. After the two BOMs, I will resume feathering the Goldfinch and planting the landscaping.

We have, of  course, had lots of Goldfinches at our feeder but my attempts to capture them on film is somewhat lame but you can see the pretty color. I like the texturing in this photo.

Practice has not made perfect yet but I keep working on it.  Here are some practice pieces from Angela Walters Free Motion Challenge Quilt Along on the exquisite new Tiara II.

And the next bit of practice on gridworking. Pinned and ready to stitch baste. It will be 50 and 60 wt for me.

One thing I have discovered is that I like finer wt thread.  I like denser quilting and finer thread has less build up.  I tried some 40 wt glide which worked really well but the look was to heavy for me. 

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From our walk on the wild side:

Mossy path thru the spring woods

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Lastly....your moment of Zen

The lovely flowered walkway in Hong Kong at the Un Chau Estates

HAPPY QUILTING UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN!

I am linking up with:

Slow Stitching Sunday, Bambi's Blog, Making Monday,  Em's Scrapbag, Esther's Wow, 
Let's Bee Social, Whoop Whoop, and Finish or Not!, Off the Wall Friday.