Auditioning and a Bit of This and That

One of my very favorite birds is the Oystercatcher and we have an abundance of them down in the basin at Ft. Fisher when the tide is nice a low.  I managed to set my camera up wrong so didn't get some of the great pics I should have gotten!!  There were quite a few of them.  The amazing thing to me is that they were not at all annoyed by all the boats coming in and out but don't like people standing by themselves with cameras!!  They must be used to the boats and see no harm.

I couldn't resist this beautiful Turkey Vulture circling around my house.  At least he didn't land on my roof but did on another chimney and I know he doesn't deliver babies! When they are circling overhead, I always wonder if the end is near!

This is probably a Forster's tern (which I have seen down here) but he was very very white and looked like a Sandwich tern (which is not common down here).  Maybe it was the light, but he looked almost stark white.  Hmmm.

Anyway, back to the quilting!!  This is the final configuration I decided on for the beach piece.  It feels more balanced to me now.  I may reduce the sky part though and may add some features on top (I know there will be grass and reeds but don't know whether there will be shells or birds yet) before quilting.

I bought this pattern recently (Figure Flattering Quiltwear) and am trying to put together a pallette of fabrics from what I brought down here.  It calls for a gradation of nine values and one accent color.  On the photo of the jacket, the accent color is the bright turquoise.  This was my first iteration with the darkest value being black.  The green is the accent color.  Not sure if these are good colors for me but...

I then tried this sequence with the light turquoise on the side being the accent color.  Probably a little more conservative.

This is the gradation that is currently being contemplated.  The very last piece before the black seems to be a little light in value but it is such a nice transition from the black but I may have to rethink.  The rest of the values do work as I desaturated the pic completely as a test.  I noted that the values in the pattern itself were awfully close using this desaturation as well.  I have purchased and washed my flannel and am itching to get started and try out this new pattern.  As always I usually try to follow a pattern pretty rigorously the first time I use it.  I liked this one as it had a little more fit than the one I hae been using.  I, however, will definitely add a lining which isn't in the pattern.  I will probably also face the top and front and won't use binding but we shall see.

Curves! Curves! Curves!

Thanks to some great teachers -- Jeannette DeNicolis-Meyer (Jeannette's website), Karen Eckmeier (Karen's website) and Cynthia Corbin (Cynthia's website) - I have conquered curves pretty much.  The technique I use the most is one from Janet with modifications from Cynthia.  However, Karen was the first one that introduced me to the joys of lots of curved seams!

I thought I would try to show the step by step approach which I have been employing a lot recently.  

1.  the first step is to overlap two pieces of fabric generously (about as wide as the curves you want to create).  

2.  Step two is to just take a rotary cutter and free hand cut a curve along the length of the two fabrics.

3.  The next is to free hand cut across the top of the fabric as well.

4.  Then I use a chalk marker about every three inches along the length of the cut.

5.  I then flip the piece over and match the marks which are now on the inside (some people do them on the outside instead).  I pin at each mark and sometimes between so that the two fabrics are eased together.

6.  Sew about a quarter of an inch down  on the sewing machine using your fingers on both the bottom fabric and the top where necessary to make sure you get both stitched.

7.  Finger press to the darker fabric.

8.  Place the "finished" piece on top of another fabric and repeat the process, using the line you free hand cut to trace along with your rotary cutter.  Then again free hand cut the top of the new piece..

9.  Press every few rows.

This was the piece which is supposed to be a beach scene.  There is a horizon line where it was just straight.  I have not yet decided whether to add anything onto it or maybe just stitch something.  We shall see.  It is about 30 x 50 right now.

I cut the above apart and put it back together keeping the horizon line the same.  Boring...

I have now auditioned it with the horizon line broken apart too which I definitely like better but still don't like the order of the pieces so I will be re-pinning tomorrow.  I think the middle piece will be moved down and the left end piece moved up but we shall see.