The Featherweight, Revenge, and Quilt Backs
Oh my, I love this thing!
Since last I blogged, I did manage to clean, oil, thread, and start sewing on the featherweight. I found a pdf of a manual thanks to some lovely commenters who told pointed me in the right direction. (Click here to download a copy).
I'm contemplating also getting this book:
Folks on instagram noted that it has a lot of great tips
I've already done over 15 hours of stitching on this thing. I know the timing because I watched the entire first season of Revenge via Netflix.
It's entertaining and a little trashy...complicated enough to hold my interest, but not so complex that I couldn't follow whilst not so much watching as listening.
The featherweight is noticeably quieter than my other machine, which is great for having videos or audio books going. I don't have to set the volume too high.
Well, the quilt I stitched up must remain under wraps as it is destined for a magazine, but I did want to show you the back:
This is a sheet from The Company Store (100% cotton and bought on clearance, where you can still grab a king size flat for $32). I love snagging high quality sheets on sale and using them as backs for my quilts.
I silk screened my name onto the sheet and wrote in the year with a permanent marker. I haven't always marked my quilts with a name and year, but there's a quilt appraiser in the Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild and she gave a little talk that explained in part how useful it is to have just that little bit of information attached to your work.
This is another quilt back I made ages ago:
It was a high-school graduation present for my cousin Derek. It spells out his name and graduation year in morse code.
I was recently reminded of this when Gary pointed me towards his version of my kelp quilt on the Material Obsession blog:
photo by Kathy Doughty
Isn't that gorgeous? He has done some kelp strips and mixed in some Morse code that spells "act love walk."
I love the whole idea of codes in quilts. Morse code is just one possibility. Yoshiko Jinzenji
also developed a code for writing messages into a quilt.One of my works in progress (from...um...three years ago...yikes) is a bee quilt using her code...
I really need to finish that quilt! I think I was stalled by the lack of a design wall, but I don't have that excuse anymore!
