A Little Indulgence...

Every New Year rather than making a resolution I make a "life skill" exercise for myself and I give myself an entire year, if not more, to master this new skill.  I've worked on being a better listener, being more patient (that was the really hard one...still working on it), being more thorough, etc.  This year it is "focus without distraction".  It's going to be a long year!

Often times when I'm working on something I get easily distracted and start something else...or mess around on the computer when I shouldn't be...or do  something that's more fun rather than sticking to the icky project I'm working on.  I spend an incredible amount of time all year long prepping and packing for my classes.  Those students that have taken my classes/workshops know how much stuff I bring.  I was determined to carve out more time for quilting and designing new patterns this year.  I decided if I did a year's worth of CD copying, handout writing and assembly of panels all at once I would be done for the year and this would free me up to do more of the fun stuff.

So with that said, I put my "life skill" to the test and finished up over 800+ CD's and copied new class handouts for up to 3 classes ahead.  oie.  Most of my thread bar panels are done and I'm still working on the feathers/backgrounds panels...there is a light at the end of this tunnel!  I am starting my traveling again and need a couple small projects to work on in my hotel room.  I am allowing myself to indulge in a beautiful little project and wanted to share the progress so far!

I was lucky enough to find a whole collection of doilies of different sizes with the same pattern.  I chose the big one for my small project.  When I am "junkin" with my daughter Emily in the antique stores, I'm always snapping pictures of things that inspire me...this was a beautiful top to a jar and became the perfect inspiration for my piece.  

I carefully layed out the star so it matched up with all the elements of the doily.  I needed the same curve for my feather spines...once I found just the right spot on my French Curve, I placed a piece of tape on it so it lined up against the marked star the same way every time.  

The star was quilted first...because these lines HAD to be perfectly straight and accurate, I used my walking foot.  It was harder to do this way but it definitely kept me accurate!

I had odd spaces to fill with feathers.  If I'm uncertain about something I always mark it and I was very pleased with how these came out...

Since I was on a roll and wanted all the feathers to be very close to the same I ended up marking every single one.  Sometimes I don't get back to a project for weeks or months so I wanted to take advantage of my good mojo.

LOVING how they look!  

I like to do a little part of each element in a piece just to make sure it looks okay...This helps because in a dark hotel room on my "little girl" machine, it's very easy to make the wrong decision on something.  Ask me how I know!

I'm looking forward to spending some time in Las Vegas this week with the Desert Quilters!  I'll get to test out lots of new stuff that I've been working on.  

By the way, I'll be working the booth for Superior Threads at the upcoming Road to California show in Ontario, California January 23-26th.  Fabulous show!  If you're there, please stop by.

Hugs, Cindy