FONF and the First Two Finishes for 2022!

Once again, I am joining in with everyone visiting Alycia Quilts today for Finished Or Not Friday!

Today I bring my first two finishes of the year!  The first one is now called "Serendipity Feather Sampler"........

I tried to get a picture this morning that would show the stitch patterns.

...and it was the quilting practice for the second one, "Hometown USA", a Country Threads design.

I had embarked on "Serendipity"  to help use up some of the leftover stash I had collected to make my "Modern Bohemia" project.   This very simple pattern is in Fons and Porter's Easy Quilts magazine, Fall 2009 issue and is a great showcase if you have some "I can't cut them up" fabrics.   I made the top back in December 2020 during a visit to see my MIL in North Carolina.  

I started on "Hometown" back in the summer of 2021 (it already feels like so long ago!).  I love Red, White and Blue quilts, love Country Threads designs, really want to make more Log Cabin quilts because I have the Accuquilt die that makes the block parts easy to cut (particularly if you are working scrappy) and I want to do a series of quilts with the theme of "home or houses".  As such, this was one I couldn't resist doing!  

These finishes represent my completion of Angela Walter's latest free-motion quilting challenge called "Fabulous Feathers".  

Angela did a series of weekly videos demonstrating seven different feather motifs as well as how to place feathers in various places on your quilt (within a block, as an edge-to-edge filler stitch pattern, within irregular shaped areas, around borders and border corners).  

I had always envisioned quilting feathers in the diagonal dark and light sections in "Hometown USA" but when I tried it initially, I wasn't getting the look I wanted.  Early on, I did try Angela's "Paisley Feather" from her "Flora and Foliage" challenge but it was a little too stitch intensive to do for the whole quilt (and I didn't pick it out so you can still see it in two of the smaller blue areas).  Fortunately, all of the large open rectangles of the "Serendipity" top gave me places to try out each of the feather motifs Angela demoed.  

Ultimately it was her "Wonky Feather" that was just the thing I was looking for to finish "Hometown".  While doing the challenge, I also took the opportunity to review two books on Feathers that I had in my library and also try motifs from them.  Patsy Thompson's "Feather Adventures" and Sue Nickels "Fabulous Feathers and Fillers" provided additional motifs that I used and provided more inspiration for using Feathers in future quilt stitch schemes.

I wanted to bind these quilts quick and for me that is best done by machine with a zigzag and monofilament thread.  So Nova the straight stitch mid-arm came out of the sewing table in favor of my vintage Singer 401.  

The good news there is that I plan on continuing the FMQ practice and review by doing the "28 Days to Better FMQ" class on Craftsy.  It is also hosted by Angela and features demonstrations by eleven other instructors including Patsy as well as Leah Day, Lori Kennedy, Christina Cameli, Christa Watson and others.  Now that I've gained some confidence in stitching on the mid-arm, I'm hoping to do the same on the 401 and learn how it works when doing FMQ on it.  The Craftsy class starts off with basic stitch patterns like Scribbles, Loops and Pebbles and progresses all the way up to Feathers and realistic images (like quilting a Butterfly) so it will give me a good chance to once again, try it all.

Hoping these finishes are another good omen for the start of this year and I can keep this up!

Linking up with:

Alycia at Alycia Quilts for "Finished Or Not Friday"