Maybe this will work….

 

The applique/trapunto project continues to grow and ask me for more, not letting the simple or “git er done” to prevail. So here’s what she asked me to do this week:

I wanted to feather that border, it needed something that justified the central block:

Ah, she asked for feathers, but not just regular feathers. She asked for something a little different. I thought it might be cool to do those feathers in red:

Meh. How about if I put a vein in each feather?

That was a hard “no”!

How about a lighter blue?

Hmm, maybe a little darker blue?

Subtle difference, lighter on the left, darker on the right:

Well let’s go ahead and quilt a critical mass with the darker blue. Ack!! I forgot to take a photo of a whole border with the darker blue! Nope. When I quilted it out, the feathers died. I performed the highly scientific “Can-I-See-It-With-My-Glasses-Off?” test; it flunked.

A good bit of this ensued:

Here it is quilted with just the lighter colored thread:

Okay, I like this BUT, the dog gone thread is shredding! I am running 12 wt Aurifil on top and Aurifil 50/2 on the bobbin, size 100 topstitch needle (ran better than a 90) with per-fect tension, coming off the top of the spool. Everything is right! And it still shreds. And now I’ve committed to that thread!

So I called on my Ultimate Needle/Thread Pairing Expert, Teri Lucas, who suggested a non-stick needle, literally the ONLY needle type I don’t have in my stash. Mr. Amazon will be delivering one overnight as I want it NOW. We’ll see where this ends up. I really am not patient, but this quilt is absolutely demanding these things and I must obey.

Now this guy has become highly annoyed:

After cutting hundreds of Houston kits, alphabet letters for Grandson and now lots of ripping, he’s telling me stop it already. I think I have my plan for the border and he can relax. Oy, what a journey!

I’ll be linking up:
Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday