Thimbleberries BOM - Mi Amore Pattern - Puppies

I finished my Village Green top. It is the Queen size version 96" x 106". I love houses, stars and trees but I love the hearts in the border the best. I have to wait to layer it till I get the right size batting and I have to put a backing together for it. I really like this top and can hardly wait for it to be a quilt.

Also, want to let you know the pattern for Mi Amore is for sale now. This was the pattern I was a tester for KISSed Quilts. It can be purchased from Marlene owner of KISSed Quilts here.
This is my version.

For the last 7 weeks I have been helping raise Goldie's pups. I have found homes for 4 of them.

Only 2 left. They are calling (baying) So time to go.

Mug Rug Pictures

My Mug Rug that I posted about a few post back was finally delivered. I mailed it on January 19 and it was received today (3 weeks). It did travel from Florida to South Africa.

Free Motion Quilting Challenge February

Feathers

I love quilted feather plumes! Just not mine

These are ones I tried last year. They were horriable. I will not machine quilt feathers again, they will be hand quilted only.

Then 2012 came along and I found this wonderful Free Motion Quilt challenge at SewCalGal.

http://sewcalgal.blogspot.com/p/free-motion-quilt-challenge.html

I want to improve my machine quilting a lot, I have hand quilted for almost 40 years and I love to hand quilt and I love the look, but I only have so much time and hand quilting takes a long time. Machine quiltng is so much faster but mine is barely passable . So January's challenge was heart shaped leaves, they were fun to do and practice. But February's is Feathers. I don't know I may have to quit. No! I must try. So I read through Diane Gaudynski's Tutorial. Still doubtful I printed out the tutorial and read it again. OK maybe I can do it. So I prepared my practice sample... drew a  spine, that I was to follow, prepared my sewing machine, thread a lightweight rayon embroidery thread, size 70 needle, feed dogs down and darning foot.

Ready Set Go

I took my time. stopping after a couple of feathers (teardrops) looked and repositioned. sewed slow or medium speed. Tried to follow the directions. When I finished. I was happy. They aren't perfect and I still need lots of practice but my practice is pretty.

My next practice is a postcard and I think it is beautiful and I hope its reciepent does too!

Then after reading some of the other peoples posts on their practices I realized that I had not had any real tension or thread difficulties. So I did some pratices with heavier cotton (cream) thread and played with the tension and the I tried a heavy twisted (green) rayon thread and adjusted tension some more. Then I finished up with the embroidery rayon so I could end on a happy note. Thread really does matter.

Front

Back

I now look forward to making feathers on some quilts. But for now I'll practice.