Thursday, April 17, 2014

Value Finder, Chinese Coins and Another GG Block

Kathy asked a great question. She saw a green value finder and asked when it would be used. The simple answer is that a red value finder doesn't work particularly well on red fabrics so that is when the green tool would be used. And the green doesn't work well on green fabrics but the red does. Green neutralizes red and red neutralizes green. If you have both a red and green value finder you can use them together to determine the value. The view will be brownish (remember my post yesterday about mixing complementary colours to make brown) but it will give you the value. This can be helpful if you have a multi-colour fabric. Thanks for the great question Kathy!

A friend made a Chinese Coins quilt. I was having an overwhelming urge to quilt feathers so I asked if I could quilt it and she said yes!I love all the bright colours in the columns!


The first thing I did was stitch in the ditch on either side of the columns. I used Superior Monopoly on top and Superior The Bottom Line in the bobbin.


I marked the spine of the vine and was off to the races! I used a brown Frixion pen that has a super fine point; it makes a very fine line that can barely be seen and when I quilted the spine it just disappeared!

I started at the top of the column and quilted the spine working towards the bottom of the quilt. When I got there I started quilting the feather. When I got to the top I quilted back down about 1/4" away from the spine. I'm still using The Bottom Line in the bobbin but on top I switched to Superior So Fine! I'm really loving this thread because it is soft and light weight so there is no heavy build-up where I backtrack. In addition it doesn't produce lint and that makes my sewing machine very happy! It also makes me very happy because it is very affordable and it has the look of a lovely cotton thread!


When I got to the bottom I quilted the right side of the feather. From the top I echo quilted back down along the right side of the feather. I still have to do the left side.


There are four beige columns. Once they are quilted I'll fill in the background and then figure out what to do with the pieced columns. My open toe metal FMQ foot does not like quilting near seams as is the case with the echo quilting. I've got a few other FMQ feet so I'm going to try them out and see if they do a better job for me.

I've got another GG (Godstone Grannies) block finished! That outer round of hexagons took a lot of fussy cutting. There are 28 hexies in that border so that's a lot of fabric. Fortunately I had quite a bit of yardage of the fabric and had only paid $3/meter for it so I didn't mind turning it into Swiss cheese!


Tomorrow will be the launch of my next quilt along, Value Proposition! All of the blocks are made of 1" hexies and they stitch up quite quickly. I hope you'll read along and if you have time sew along with me!


Until tomorrow, happy sewing!
Karen H

11 comments:

  1. Your machine quilting feathers are beautiful! Love the quilt's bright colors too. A question, how do you get your hexagons pieced into the Godstone Grannies blocks so quickly? You must be a very quick stitcher!

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  2. Hei Karen
    Wow, your blocks for the godstone grannies looks emazing and you are so bsy! Do you even sleep????*lol*
    I am in Switzerland now and read your postes from the last days! Great
    Greetings
    Marina

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    1. I do sleep Marina! But I work fast and I sew every day even if it is just for a little bit. It makes me happy and it makes me feel good. On the other hand my fingers are a mess!

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  3. Nice quilting, Karen -- are you pulling all-nighters to whip out the Godstone Grannie blocks?

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  4. See....I'm not the only one who wonders if you ever sleep. The GG block is amazing and I'm always a fan of your quilting.

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  5. Amazing work Karen.
    I love how your quilting just transforms and bring to life a very simple Chinese Coins design.
    The GG block is gorgeous, love the fussy cutting.
    Julia ♥

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  6. Lovely quilting! I will be interested to see what you do in the scrappy columns :-) Your GG block is very impressive - great fussy cutting!

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  7. That feather is gorgeous! such perfection. I'm so jealous of your skill. I love the godstone granny fussy cuts too. Glad to see everybody else thinks you're a sewing demon too. I mean sewing diva. You must work at it constantly or do you have little elves who finish everything at night for you since we all have too many shoes?
    I hope to finish the soupcon this weekend. wish me luck so I can post soon.

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    1. Thanks Susan! You are a no reply blogger so I couldn't respond to your message! I never thought I could quilt feathers until I got started and practiced, practiced, practiced!!

      I try to organize my project (especially hexagon projects) so that I can make efficient use of my time. I'll write about my process in the next few days! I like to do my hand sewing in the evening while I listen to the TV. I always have a bit of sewing in my purse so if I'm out I can baste a few hexagons or stitch them together. All of those little bits do add up!

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  8. Your quilting is really wonderful.

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  9. Karen, I love So Fine thread as well; I use the 50 wt in my longarm. It does a great job without looking too thready.
    I notice basting lines in your hexies-is that how you attach the fabric to the papers? Love the fussy cutting in that outer row of hexies!

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