"A term used in place of swear words, but with the same emphasis. Rooted at meaning "impossible," as horses obviously lack feathers."
So, I can't really apply it to my recent experience quilting the feathers in the charity quilt my friend and I made but I think I'll still keep it as my title of the day.
Two days ago I spent most of the day in the kitchen working with carrots and green beans, getting them into the freezer. I remember thinking to myself at the end that I'd been on my feet a lot that day and I didn't feel very uncomfortable as I had in the past. Before my knee replacement I could stand no more than 10 minutes at a time and since the surgery, I've noticed a gradual increase in how long I can stand and have been very pleased. Well, pride goes before the fall, I guess. After my work was done in the kitchen, I sat down and put my feet up to watch some TV before getting dinner ready. Within half an hour, I literally could not move my knee AT ALL! It hurt soooo much to move it! I was nearly in tears. Thankfully, Don was home and could help me get up so I could try to bend it a little otherwise, I couldn't stand on it at all much less walk anywhere. A chat with the on-call orthopedic at Mayo Clinic, some ice, Ibuprofen, and gentle movement, and an hour later it was much improved. The doc told me to stay off it for awhile so Don, great guy that he is, fixed and served dinner and did the clean up. Yesterday the knee was better and it's almost normal today, but I'm still not standing or walking too much for now. It's the perfect time to isolate in the sewing room and finish those feathers!
Yesterday, I gathered up all my courage and began quilting the charity quilt. First I made a fresh quilt sandwich and practiced about 4 times and I rather liked the feathers I did there. So, on to the real thing. First, I stitched in the ditch along the edges of the green polka dot sashing in the quilt. That went very well, in my opinion (sometimes stitching in the ditch can be a real bugger!) so, on to the feathers. I'm using a black Frixion pen to mark the spines of the feathers and then I'm free handing it in making the petals or whatever they're called. Amazingly, I can do this! I'm so surprised! I've struggled for YEARS to master quilting feathers and now I can finally do it!
Because the sashings are pretty long, I decided to stitch separate feathers about 15 inches long and I'm doing a separate feather around the corners that you can see in the second photo.
Are they perfect feathers? No--I'm not a computer after all. Are they fancy feathers? No, I"m just beginning. Are they good enough for this project? Absolutely!
Yesterday, I did about half of the sashings before my shoulders and arms were tired and I had developed a splitting headache, which went away as soon as I stopped the quilting. Do you think I may have been a little tense!!!! When I'm finished with this post, I'll be back in the sewing room, finishing the feathers and beginning on the flying geese units. I have a design figured out for them and they should be pretty easy to do. Fingers crossed!
I also finished up this pumpkin patch candle mat and got that posted on my Etsy store, Jolly Ruby so you can take a look at that if you like.
So, those are my latest adventures in rehabbing a metal knee and mastering quilting feathers! I hope I don't find myself in a situation today where I scream "Horse Feathers!" out of frustration! Wish me luck finishing this quilt, okay?
No comments:
Post a Comment