Sunday, January 13, 2013

Making Progress

In addition to the snowflake quilt, I have two other projects going on: Express Your Love and the Super Mario Quilt.

This weekend, I made progress on both.

For Super Mario, I found the painter's tape, so I can cover the bed of my machine and prevent any more Sharpie marker lines from forming as the interfacing rubs over the bed of the machine.  I also pressed the two blocks I had finished.

Neither of the blocks are 18.5" square.  Sadly, the place squares on a grid and sew method does not ensure perfection.  But I still think the shapes match up a heck of a lot better than if I was trying to do this through normal piecing methods!   I also think that having the lines for all the individual squares makes the pixelated pictures look more authentic, and if I pieced them individually, I would have definetly done larger "chunks"- not cut every single block. So I'm still glad I did it the way I did, even if it still isn't perfect. 
 




For Express Your Love, I did all the outlining, except the hair- I'm still not sure what color to do that in.
 I also quilted the Green part of the Earth.  I don't like it, but it is staying.  I echoed the outer part of the earth, and I should have taken the line inside and echoed the shape of the water- oops.  I also didn't use Isacord (didn't have green) and selected the closest match I had, which was Dual Duty.  The thread is not pretty (neither is the picture, sorry).  It is dull looking and thick.
Not sure how to do the water.  I'm thinking about pebbling for a bubbles look, but I'm going to wait to see what Leah shows us.

I've decided on a few of the phrases I'm going to put into the ribbons (or at least pick from), but am a bit scared of getting them there, because my handwriting is terrible, and I need to mark the words to fit the ribbons.

"Live in the now and design your future."
"Let your dreams fly free."
"Have an open and willing heart"
Live life courageously"
"Release all fear of failure"
"The future is bright and happy"
"Surround yourself with love"

4 comments:

Dea said...

You have chosen some beautiful phrases to use in your Express Your Love.
You've made great progress, with all the outlining done. And good for you that you'll leave the quilting of the earth in ! When EYL is all finished and you still think it's dull, maybe you can embellish it with paint or beads to make it a bit more interesting.

Pat Merkle said...

"Release all fear of failure"! Your work is WONDERFUL!

Gwyned Trefethen said...

I worried about fitting my words into the ribbon, too. So, before I marked them on the quilt, I printed them in a large font (48 pt) on my computer, in order to get a relative length of each word. Think of it like resizing a block.

Terrie Sandelin said...

You've chosen such great phrases. I've been really been thinking about what to put on mine and haven't decided yet. Your quilting is looking great.