Bird Feet and Kitty Feet

It was a marvelous day of almost nothing but quilting yesterday. Once I had my housework done in the morning, the rest of the day was devoted to the Baby Birds quilt. When I left off, I was working on the simple swirls for the applique background.

When that was finished, I was ready to work on the ruler lines in the chevron portion. It's been a challenge to get the hang of holding the rulers in place to make nice straight lines. For one thing, the throat plate of my machine was about a quarter inch higher than the surface of my Koala table, and that meant my rulers rocked when I tried holding them level. After consulting The Google to find possible solutions to this problem, it occurred to me that the addition of the table overlay that comes with the standard table for my machine might raise the surface to level.

It still isn't perfect, but it's high enough that the rulers no longer rock.

Mike and I have talked about creating a template using simple cardboard to bring it just a tad higher, but after working with the rulers for the free motion quilting sampler and working with the quilt yesterday, I'm starting to think it's fine the way it is. Even with the level surface, however, holding onto the rulers and keeping them in place for a nice straight line has required some practice. Working on these motifs for the free motion quilting sampler gave me a good bit of practice.

When I started on the quilt yesterday, it was much easier for me to stitch without getting a death grip on the ruler. By death grip, I mean death to my neck, which always ends up sore at the end of a long session of quilting.

I've outlined the trianguler portion of the chevron and then added a stylized heart to the center. The whole quilt started with the section of that purple fabric, and so I'm sticking with the designs from the fabric...hearts and flowers. Oh yes, and birdie feet.

You might recall I was working on the little birdie feet and trying to figure out if I could turn the corner in the zigzag portion of the quilt. It worked out fine. The trick was turning the quilt so that the ruled lines ran horizontal. That helped me keep my bearings as I worked my way across the quilt.

Here's how it looks from the back.

With those two rows done, the quilting is halfway finished. 

It always photographs better when I take it downstairs in front of my living room windows. It's the one place in the house where the lighting gives me enough contrast for the quilting to show. Lay a quilt down on the floor there, and you will catch yourself a cat.

I like this quilt, Mom. It has birds. I *really* like birds. They're so delicious.

Here's how it looks from the back. I've outlined the birds, but after seeing it from the back, I've decided to go back and outline the birds' wings too.

Generally, I don't do a lot of quilting on applique because it can make holes that are a little too obvious for my taste. Nevertheless, I can outline next to the top-stitching line, and I think that will look better from the back.

Does this side have birds too?

So I'll continue on my way today. While I'm hoping I can finish the quilting today, I'm not really expecting to. My goal is to have this one finished before the week is up.