Spiral swans

[Syrinx]

Haha it was only three strips. And I worked out I could unpick on line of stitching and then it was fixed so just finished doing that!
much happier now. Things like that really annoy me. Especially as it reminds me I stitched backwards on all my pattern pieces

[Ploshkin]

@Syrinx only you know what it was supposed to look like (well, now us as well  ) so no ones going to notice.  Its going to look stunning.

[Syrinx]

I hope so!

Next stage - sew all the strips together to make one big spiral piece.

Stage after that is the most awful bit. Reverse appliqué to the backing fabric. That's right. I'm going to have to appliqué the backing fabric over the geese

[Syrinx]

Another update today! I seem to be quite efficient for some reason!

Everything ironed. After spending an age pulling all the paper off the spiral.

Pinned the Swan spiral onto the backing fabric and then chalked little notches at the edge of each green triangle. Unpinned the spiral. Connected the chalk lines up free hand. Now just have to cut it out, leaving a good seam allowance. Then the bit I have been dreading - pinning the backing onto the spiral and then sewing the appliqué.

looks like this

[Morgan]

What a lovely  striking project and great problem solving.
These days I like something with a bit of a challenge to make it an interesting sew. 
Looking forward to the next instalment. 

[Iminei]

@Syrinx  ... Did you see this ... The powerpoint tutorial takes a while to load but has great tips for your problem ....


Challenge Royale Tut

Challenge Royale Thread

[Syrinx]

Not quite the same, but that is an excellent way of making a more art style quilt.

The issue I have is this design is a mix of applique and fpp. The spiral of fpp would always need to be appliqued on/on top of in order for it to work. The backing is too large to individually piece. I'm just going to cut out the sprial and then sew it onto the spiral. I may hyperlapse it if I can sort out where to prop the phone.

I always do find some of the american things like wundaweb are amazing for tricky applique things. I may have to hunt some out for the art quilt I need to make for my friend's wedding gift. Art quilts are a million times easier with wundaweb!

[Syrinx]

Faaaar too many pins but it's pinned and ready to stitch.
Here's hoping it all sews well!

80 odd pins

[Syrinx]

And the top is all sewn up there are a couple of mucked up bits at the last swan but it's hard to reverse appliqué

[Syrinx]

Third post in a row 
I've been hunting around for the right batik for the backing (and looking for a good deal on bamboo/cotton wadding) and made the bad decision to visit doughtys online fabric emporia because I know they stock Bali batiks and they are my downfall.

I've found a couple of designs that I like, but I'm uncertain of which colour and design to go with that would best show off the FMQ (spirals and bubbles with a few more swans added) and would be the best binding choice as I'll do my favourite use the backing to create binding.

There are some light green versions here that would mirror the swans and would highlight the binding border. And some beautiful blue/green here that would be a mix of both colours and perhaps a less sharp contrast as the binding. I'm leaning towards the spiral or dot designs n both colourways but I would really love some outside input.

[Pearl]

Usually when the question is either... or, I recommend both,  but I  the blue/green fabrics in the second set.  I'd buy that even if it's not suitable for the backing. 

[BrendaP]

Personally I like the more blue for the backing, but what ever you choose it's going to look stunning.

[Syrinx]

I've gone for the blue dotty one. I wanted the small spirals but they only had half a meter left which was sad. Hopefully it'll arrive next week and I can get on with my FMQ!

[Syrinx]

Pinned it all together. Haven't trimmed the top square yet because I'm lazy

[Syrinx]

I'm not sure whether or not to quilt the green. I have green thread that matches, but don't know what I'd do in them. The idea to do an actual Swan in the middle went as soon as I tested out moving the quilt on my machine. There's just not enough table to the side of the machine to support the quilt for something so intricate, especially with such well matched thread (it's basically invisible the colour matches so well) so I scrapped that idea