Daisy Janie

Celebrating 4000 FB fans with a fabric giveaway!

While I haven't been here on the Daisy Janie blog too much this year, I have been posting fairly often on Daisy Janie's facebook page. We recently reached a 4000-fan milestone, and I am celebrating by offering 4 FQ bundles to 4 random winners (1 per winner).

If you'd like a chance to win, go to THIS POST on my facebook page and follow the directions for entering. The contest ends Saturday, 11/9/13 at midnight EST.

Do NOT leave a comment here expecting to be entered.... won't getcha anywhere! (But you can always leave a comment to say howdy!)

 

Quilt Market | Fall 2013

 

quote | what to do? where to start?

You, too??

Kicked summer off with some White Mtn. hiking!

Happy Summer!!! I think it's finally, finally here in PA! Are you making plans, working on projects, having picnics, going on vacations? Would love to hear what you're up to!

Believe it or not, I've done some sewing and will have fabric news and projects to share in the coming weeks!

We kicked off our summer last week with a trip to the White Mountains in New Hampshire. We had beautiful weather and enjoyed 3 fantastic days of strenuous hiking, laughing like crazy and tracking down local and/or organic eateries! Success on all!

A couple of our favorite food stops in the White Mountains:
Thompson House Eatery
McKaella's Sweet Shop 
Chef's Market
The Local Grocer
Backcountry Bakery & Cafe
Moat Mountain Smoke House & Brewing Co.

Above: Hike up to summit of Mt. Jackson.
As we were going up this very section, a group of boys (probably about fifteen 12-year-olds) was coming down. They were starting to cluster near a ledge as they waited for us to get by, and their adult guide exasperatedly yelled out (clearly he had already said it 50 times on this trip), "Don't stack up! It's too wet and steep to stack up!" I almost peed myself laughing (in my head) - what a great line! Don't stack up. It's a good one to blurt randomly, too. So guess how many times I've told my husband and son 'don't stack up!' since we've been home? Too many to count! My son keeps asking why I love it so much.... no idea. Just do.

Above: Sign spotted on Crawford Path as we descended Mt. Jackson.
1819!!! Wowsers! If you hike, I'm sure it's crossed your mind how these mountain paths were created - and that some person or persons had to do a lot of hard, hard work to make them navigable. Freaking amazing. Last summer we learned that some of the trails in Acadia National Park in Maine were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps under Roosevelt, to give work to unmarried men 18-25.

Above & below: Vistas from our ascent up Mt. Washington, the highest point in the NE United States.
When M and I hiked this 19 years ago, we made it within 1/2 mile of the summit and had to turn around. We were woefully unprepared for the 40-degree drop in temperature, the wind chill and the misting fog. Mt. Washington has unique and extreme weather patterns, and it can change on a dime. Since we didn't make it to the top, it has been taunting me like snarky unfinished business tends to do. An ache to officially check it as 'done.' So we did! Experiencing this hike with my son was the icing on the cake. Double check. We got so, so lucky with this gorgeous day!

Above: The tippy top! Weather at the bottom was 75 degrees and calm as can be. The summit was 40 degrees with 40 mph wind gusts - I had to squat down a few times as we neared the top so as not to lose my footing. Visibility was 85 miles!

The most well-known and oft traveled trail to the top is Tuckerman's Ravine, which is where we hiked 19 years ago. This time, we took the Jewell Trail. It was 10 miles round trip - a longer, slightly more gradual climb. There aren't any truly easy ways to hike up Mt. W, but this was the easiest of the options. I tore my hamstring quite badly in May, and I was really worried I'd have to turn around if the ascent was too steep. M found this path b/c he knew how much getting to the top meant to me (and all of us). Love that lovebird 'o mine!!!

There were hordes of people waiting to trade cameras to get their pictures taken at this summit marker. It was the morning of the Mt. Washington Road Race, where runners make a 7.6-mile pure hillclimb to the top! They were coming in droves! Awesomeness. The guy we happened to trade cameras with recognized the name of our town on M's sweatshirt, and said his college roommate was from here! What are the chances?

Above: The road leading to the trailhead, with Mt. Washington in front of us. The little line in the trees is the cog railway track. See the smoke at the bottom from the train? The red X is just about where I stood to take the picture below.

Below: Standing atop the cog railway tracks. The trail passes right over. Insanely steep!!

p.s. Have a great summer! Don't stack up.

how to | create a basic design repeat on paper.

If you've ever wondered how fabric repeats work, this simple how-to will give you a basic understanding of the methodology. And it's fun! ANYONE can do this - you don't need to be an artist!

Case in point.
I used this activity with my son's 7th grade class 2 years ago as well as the ladies in the Berks Quilters Guild a few weeks ago. Two very, very different audiences, and both loved it and created some wonderful designs. In my son's class, some smart alecks thought they'd be funny by scribbling on the page instead of drawing. I made sure to tell those kids, "Wow - that is going to look incredible when you're done!" And those designs truly looked great. Those same kids did an about-face when they realized you can't outsmart art. A little evidence that it doesn't matter what you put down on the page!

Couple of notes before we get started:

• This method of creating repeats on paper is not my original idea. I saw it done first by Julia Rothman on Design Sponge a few years ago. Julia's is very cool!
• I created this random design on sleepy eyes way past midnight on a desk that was crammed with crap, including a coffee cup, a tea mug and a wine glass. Not ideal conditions as it was an after-afterthought. Point is: Just go for it! Don't overthink it. Don't hover over the page with nervous hesitation. Put something down. If you don't like it, try again.
• As I completed each step, I made a copy of it so that I could show each progression of this particular repeat at my Quilt Guild presentation. (Sort of like a cooking show.) Because my copier doesn't copy 100% of the page, you'll see little slivers of white borders on my pages.
• Once my paper repeat was done, I scanned it and used Illustrator to resize, color, and tile it (above).

Ready to get started?

Step 1 / Create a doodle of any sort in the center of your page. You can fill as much of the page as you like as long as you don't go over any of the edges.

Step 2 / Cut your paper in half lengthwise. Move the right side to the left so the design is now on the outsides and the center is blank. Neatly and precisely tape the two halves back together on the back.

Step 3 / Cut your paper in half widthwise this time. Move the top half to the bottom so the design is now in the four corners and the center is blank. Neatly and precisely tape the two halves back together on the back.

Step 4 / Add some design elements to the center of your page, staying away from the edges again. At any point after you have your original design element in the four corners, you can call your repeat done. If you want to add more, do so. If not, that's cool beans, too!

Step 5 / Add texture or other filler to any negative space, if you think your design needs it, but stay away from the edges. I added the criss-cross lines around the flowers.

Voila! You are done. If you were to make a bunch of copies of your page and tile them horizontally and vertically, the edges would match-up seamlessly and look like any surface or fabric design that is created in repeat.

When designing in Illustrator, I create a square or rectangle on my screen. I tend to focus my design across the top edge and down the left side first, dragging copies of those motifs to the opposing edges as I go. Then I'll go back and fill in the spaces in-between. Once the artwork is cropped to the size of the square or rectangle, all edges will tile seamlessly when it is printed onto fabric. These repeats can take a couple hours or a couple weeks - depends on a lot of variables!

To give you an idea where you can go with your repeat if you have access to Illustator (or Photoshop, I guess - I don't use PS so I don't know what its capabilities are). This is when you could scan your paper repeat drawing and vectorize it in Illustrator to create points and lines that can be manipulated and colored, as I have shown above and below. This is ridiculously fun to play around with - dropping colors in, resizing motifs, rotating stuff around, pulling bits out of bigger elements and plopping them around the background..... so. much. fun.

Below, you can see what it would look like if the motifs were smaller. This is also where you can see if you've created an unintentional pattern in the design (like the blank space in my texture), and you can correct these.

Hope this all makes sense! Have fun giving this repeat method a try! Let me know how it goes.

Speaking at the Berks Quilters Guild.

Life doesn't always happen in perfect clarity, does it? Literally or figuratively. Given that, I surely hope you'll overlook the blurry images in this post. Maybe you'll also grant me some latitude on my hair, which really should have been in a ponytail. I'd like to think the blurry pics made my hair look frizzy, but no, it was really a moppy frizzfest all on its own!  :)
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A few weeks ago, I had the distinct pleasure to guest speak at the meeting of a local group, the Berks Quilters Guild. They are a talented and large guild - I was excited & nervous. When I was introduced as the 'best kept secret in town,' I reeeealllly had to take a deep breath and calm my jitters before I reached the microphone. But, like all quilters I have come to know, they were incredibly warm & welcoming and eager to hear what I had to share about fabric, quilting and sewing! It just so happens those are things I like to chat about!

Also....
What a magnificent treat to stand before a group of 1oo or so women and not have a single, solitary blank stare when I desribed what I do: "I design and manufacture organic cotton fabrics for the quilting industry, which I sell to independent quilt shops on a worldwide basis."

Click. They got it and nodded along with complete understanding.

My presentation was entitled, "From Sketched Design to Printed Bolt." I covered a lot of territory!

• background on how I landed in the world of fabric design in the first place
• the transition from hobby-business to business-business, with a few key turning points and risks I took
• the mistakes I've made along the way - some funny, some expensive and not-so-funny
• what Quilt Market is like
• where my inspiration comes from
• how to turn a doodle into a design, and the tools and software used in the process
• how the fabric design I create eventually becomes a bolt of fabric
• what large-volume rotary printing entails and how I work with the mill

Once I made a dent in these topics, I showed about 15 examples of designs from my sketchbooks (above) and the fabric design they turned into (below) - abracadabra! Well, the process is not quite so instantaneous - but it sort of felt that way as I showed them back-to-back in quick succession. "This flower became this design... these lines became this texture... this snowflake became this Moroccan design...."

I took along some materials so they could create their own fabric repeats on paper. They weren't quite sure where we were headed, but once they completed the activity, I was able to tie it back to how I create a repeat in Illustrator.... explaining the seamless tiling aspect.... and I heard a lot of knowing, "oooohs! aaaaahs!" Just like everything else throughout the night:  Click. They got it. Quilters rock!

* * * * * Coming up Friday, I will share the activity here on the blog. * * * * *

I took along some door prizes, pattern handouts of my Garden Ladder Quilt and Fabric Produce Bag, magazines where my fabrics were featured and some MODERN quilting books (which they loved!). I know some of these women have heard of the Modern Quilt Guild, but not many. It was a lot of fun to share this with them. Quite a few wrote down the book titles (Sunday Morning Quilts, Quilting Modern, Modern Patchwork) and authors (Cheryl Arkison and Amanda Jean Nyberg, Jacquie Gering and Katie Pederson, Elizabeth Hartman) so they could find them later.

I also shared lotsa samples of sewn goodies: pillows, handbags, quilts (of course!) and even the skirt I had on that was finished only an hour prior (maybe I should spent more time on my hair than on the skirt!). It was really gratifying to talk about these items with such an appreciative audience!

It was also pretty cool to see so much of my work in one place. It's not very humble to say I was impressed, but it's also not very often that we allow ourselves the proper distance and time to reflect on our accomplishments. I strongly advise giving it a try!!! You'll be surprised what comes into sparkling clarity when you stop for a moment to do so.

Tutorial: Quad Leaf Pillow (strip piecing and applique)

Sticking with the leaf theme, I made this 16” quad leaf pillow from my New Leaf organic fabric collection, available now at these fine retailers.

This is a fairly simple project that includes strip piecing (improv or planned) and fusible applique. Follow my steps to make yours look similar or change the fabrics, the layout or leaf size to make your pillow different and unique! Adding a button to the center would be cute. This would also make a pretty block for a quilt!

MATERIALS:

• Leaf Template (download below)
• 36 strips of fabric, 12” long and cut into 1-1/2” widths. I used 8 different fabrics and cut 4-5 strips of each one.
• Lightweight, double-sided fusible adhesive (has paper backing)
• Base fabric for pillow front – four squares, 9” x 9”
• Fabric for pillow back using your favorite method
• Thread, of course. :)

Seam allowances are 3/8", but 1/4" will work, too.
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Download Leaf Template.

Print leaf template onto 8-1/2” x 11” paper or cardstock (cardstock will work better).

*Botony Lesson: This is an ovate leaf, which is an egg-shaped leaf where the base is broader than the tip, and the tip tapers to the end.

Above:
Strip piece 1-1/2” fabrics in random arrangements to make panels, using 9 fabric strips per panel (sample above shows only 8). Make 4 strip-pieced panels like this.

Above: Cut 2 panels into 3” strips, at a 45-degree angle from top left to bottom right.

Below: Cut 2 panels into 3” strips, at a 45-degree angle from top right to bottom left.

Above:

1. Rotate and pair strips so that the matched-up pair forms a straight seam running down the center, and the 45-degree angles of the pair form a “V”. Just like the veins on a leaf. Sew strips together at the center seam. Make 4 pairs – one for each leaf. (You will have extra, unmatched strips.) Double-check that your leaf template will fit each pair you put together BEFORE you sew the strips together. Also, try to avoid having 2 fabrics in the same print lining-up evenly on opposite sides of each pair. Adjust your strips up or down as needed or swap strips out with other pairs.
2. Trace the leaf template onto each of the 4 pairs of strips. Before you cut, double check the directionality of each leaf. Are all the "veins" going the same direction on each leaf? If not, turn the template around and re-trace.
3. Trace the leaf template onto double-sided fusible adhesive. Cut out 4 of these & iron fusible adhesive to the back of each fabric leaf. Follow manufacturer’s directions. Trim as needed.

Above:
Diagonally & accurately fold a fabric base square (for the front of the pillow), finger press. Lightly mark 1-1/2” from 1 corner, dot on the crease. This will be your inside corner.

Line-up the center seam of a leaf with the crease on the base fabric. The tapered edge of the leaf will be pointing toward the inside, with the tip of the leaf on the 1-1/2” mark you just made. Fuse into place.

Satin stitch (aka: zig-zag stitch) around the outside edge of your fused-leaf applique with a thread color that will work well with your fabrics. IMPORTANT: Test widths and lengths of your satin stitch on scrap fabrics first! I exaggerated the satin stitch in these images so you could see it; my stitches were much tighter than what is shown.

Repeat on the other 3 fabric squares.

Above:
Sew together the 2 top squares of fabric. Repeat with bottom squares. Then sew the top half to the bottom half to complete the quad front.

Keeping the center seams centered (say that 10 times fast), trim the edges of the pillow front down to 17” square.

The pillow front is complete! Complete your pillow using your favorite method. Maybe an envelope closure? Maybe a hidden zipper? Whatever you like!

A reminder for Earth Day.

And for every other day in our entire lives...

(love this daisy pic - taken on a bike ride in Bar Harbor, Maine last June)

quilted quilts.

Wow! That was fast! No sooner did I drop off these 2 quilts to be quilted when the quilter was calling me to tell me they were done! And impressively done at that! Hats off to Tracey, the long-arm quilter who is going to become my new best friend. She doesn’t know it yet!

The top quilt is the Bee Block quilt, and it has a swirly stitch in white. Looks great! Tracey explained her personal preference for choosing white thread, which is to let the background stay the background. It fades out and lets the blocks pop!

The bottom quilt is simply a 2-yard panel of the Festoon print – a cheater print when quilted like this. It has a meandering daisy stitch (love!) in a plum-raspberry. Certainly, I will share each of these in their entirety after I bind them.

I am speaking at a local quilt guild next week and plan to take these along to share…guess I best get busy with that binding and some other fun sewing!

When I find a hitch in my giddy-up that keeps me from doing something I should do and want to do, I want to figure out why. Take quilting, for example. I love making tops, and that doesn’t seem daunting at all. But the quilting part evokes stomach knots and sweaty palms. I just haven’t spent enough time doing it or learning the intricacies to make it look decent. It was holding me back from making quilts.

I completely stumbled upon this long-arm quilter, and now I am soooo stoked to make more, more, more quilts and let her work her magic!!! Relief!

Friends of ours just had a baby, and I found myself daydreaming about making them an organic baby quilt! Folks, that has never (ever) happened. Double excitement: doing something sweet for good friends and knowing I don’t have to quilt it!

 

Since I took such a long blog break during Feb & March, I’m loading you up on pics in these new posts to make up for lost time! :) Plus, it was an inordinately great day to take pics: lighting was perfecto!

Bee Block Quilt Top.

The beautiful, creative blocks from the New Leaf Bee Block Blog Hop came together so nicely in this quilt top! It is pure kismet* that some of these blocks are bordering on similar to one another as I gave no instructions to the block designers. The sameness of some and the uniqueness of others made the layout of the quilt pretty easy to fashion – like certain blocks should be in certain locations just because.

Each block started out at 12” x 12” (finished at 11.5”). I added a 2.5” white sash to frame out each block (a 2” sash when finished). I fussy cut a few of the flower strips in the Festoon fabric and added those between the white, vertical sashing pieces, primarily to add width to the quilt. The completed top as it is now is 51” x 68”.

*I love when a group shakes out like that, where certain patterns or looks trend seemingly out of nowhere. Maybe it’s the marketing researcher in me that delights in statistical trends in a quilting bee – patterns in patterns, if you will! It really isn’t out of nowhere, however, b/c our experiences, backgrounds, abilities, etc. will always propel us to behave and think in certain ways… so if our inputs are similar, our outputs will be, too. Then, there are always the outliers in a subsample…. those who are outside the bell curve so to speak. It’s all good to me – everyone has an important place in the whole!!

I played around with a few layouts, and this one seemed to have the most balanced look overall. For a few mock layouts, I tried to pretend the individual design of each block didn’t matter and that any random placement would magically flow. Truthfully, the unique aesthetic of each one is strong enough that I felt placement mattered – to bring out the best in each block and the look of the final quilt.

The top is off being quilted now at a long-arm machine quilter who lives blocks from me…. Blocks I tell you! What a joy to find her! She’s young, she’s hip, she’s talented and she’s close! I will certainly share this quilt with you when it’s 100% finished!

quote | heart whispers.

I declare it's never too late to wish you a Happy Love Day! Everyday should be a day to celebrate love anywayz! Mwa!

These hanging hearts are made from the Festoon design in New Leaf.

I fussy cut each heart from one of the unique strips in the fabric panel, trying to center the flower in each one. I also cut backing fabric from 2 other designs in the collection. The edges were sewn, leaving a tiny opening to stuff fluff, and then the opening was sewn closed. I trimmed the edges with pinking shears, and then zipped a little embroidery floss through the top of each one with a big needle. As my husband says: zip, bang, boom, done.

bake | homemade (GF) candy cakes

The Tastykake Peanut Butter Kandy Kakes are as traditional to the cuisine of southeastern PA as the Philly Cheesesteak and pretzels. I ate my fair share growing up, enough to know they're heavenly. As an adult, however, I avoid processed foods like this altogether. They can call it whatever fancy name they want and use a fun logo, but all I see is "Toxic Chemicals with Zero Nutritional Value." If we can't pronounce the ingredients, it's not food.

We were talking about dessert-y items to make recently, and my son brought up Kandy Kakes. He suggested we make them from scratch - I was totally down with that! Here's how we did it....

Homemade Candy Cakes

• Find a yellow cake mix recipe to make from scratch. We used this gluten-free version from food.com.
• Bake in a thin layer in a 1" jelly roll pan.  ***I put all our batter in one pan, however, I think it would be better to divide the batter into 2 pans for a thinner cake.
• When the cake comes out of the oven, immediately drop dollups of natural/no sugar added peanut butter (or almond butter or sunflower butter or cashew butter...whatever rocks your world) all over the top. It will start to melt, and then you can gently spread it to cover the top of the cake completely. This will be a thin, thin layer.
• Freeze, pan & all, for a couple hours.
• After a couple hours, melt your chocolate over a double boiler. We used 3 Green & Black's Organic Milk Chocolate Bars and some Sunspire dark chocolate cacao chips we had leftover.
• Remove the cake from the freezer when the chocolate is ready to go. Cut into small squares. Ours are 2" x 2" - but I'd go even smaller next time. Bite size would be better!
• Poke one of the sides with a fork and dip sideways into the melted chocolate, covering one half. Like fondue! You can sorta spin the excess off or let it drip, but work fast. You might have to refreeze if the peanut butter gets too soft as it might pull away from the cake when it's dipped into the chocolate.
• Put onto parchment-covered cutting board or other flat surface.
• When you have a batch done, put back in the freezer to re-harden the chocolate.
• Store at room temp.
• nom nom nom nom - I wish I could pluck these off the computer screen and eats 'em!

The result is obviously not exactly like a Kandy Kake, but it tastes great! We have no problem adjusting our palates to ensure we're eating what we want to eat.

FQ Scramble Word & Bundle Winner(s).

{ scrapsies left over from my feather block }

R E I N V I G O R A T I O N
The act of giving new life or energy to.
The act of putting vitality and vigour back into (someone or something).

As so many agreed who played along in the FQ Scramble, it's a perfect word to summarize the inspirational theme of the Bee Blocks and the New Leaf collection itself. Plus, it's 14 letters and there were 14 blog stops on the tour. A perfectly planned afterthought! :)

Any reinvigoration plans for you in 2013?
I plan to sew a helluva lot more. It's a challenge for me to make that time, but I absolutely must. Some days, the urge to make through sewing or drawing is so powerful that I think I'm going to burst... and yet I push it off time and time again. I don't think that's healthy, emotionally or creatively. One thing I realized recently in a very literal way is to pay attention to and heed the callings. Random thoughts, little voices, mystic visions... whatever you want to call it. They are our instincts, telling us to go forth and do! Give yourself that gift.

FQ Bundle Winner(s)
Guess what?! I decided to draw 4 winners from the 48 correct entries, instead of just 1! I'm cutting these bundles anyway, so why not share the love! The winners are as follows - I will be in touch with each of you:

• #32 - Jess R.
• #15 - Debbie W.
• #5 - Laurel S.
• #21 - Patti S.

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Thank you for playing and for the very kind comments about the blocks, the fabrics, and the FQ Scramble, like these:

• Seems like a perfectly fitting word for the collection, and what the back story was when creating the quilt blocks. I had a lot of fun with this! I found some great new blogs, and some awesome new quilt block designs.
• I love New Leaf, and I've so enjoyed following your blog hop. I bought a bunch of half yards from an online retailer, and now I'm just trying to figure out which project is worthy of them. :)
• What a fabulous blog hop - loved visiting all the girls and loved their blocks - thanks so much. Also thanks for the chance to win a bundle of your gorgeous new fabrics - such wonderful colours.
• I’ve really enjoyed seeing and reading about all the different blocks on the Blog Hop. They all turned out beautiful!
• LOVED the game and the LOVED the quilt blocks--so many new techniques to try out.
• I really enjoyed visiting all of the blogs on your hop, and the fabric is just so amazing!
• I have had such fun watching this challenge unfold. I am new to quilting and loved seeing how many ways quilters interpreted the fabric and the idea. And I now have a whole bunch more blogs to follow! Loved it, loved it, loved it! and putting all those letters together - harder than a quilt!

Enter to win a FQ bundle of New Leaf fabrics.

[ image copyright and credit: Maureen Cracknell, used with permission ]

Just a little reminder...
The Bee Block Blog Hop is over, and entries to win a fat quarter bundle of New Leaf are being accepted until tomorrow evening - Sunday, 2/3, midnight EST.

Find out how to enter:

Win a FQ Bundle of New Leaf

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I've received a hefty number of responses already, and so far, 99% have guessed the word correctly! Hoorah!

I've been particularly happy to hear how much the bee blocks and the game were enjoyed! Super to know! One of the blocks got lost in the mail :( . If the quilter has time to make another, I will wait for her so I can use all of the blocks for a quilt.

 

last stop in the New Leaf Bee Block Blog Hop!

Welcome to the last stop in the Bee Block Blog Hop for New Leaf!
The blocks have been a delight to see each day - the variety, the layouts, the color plays, the stories, the techniques, the extras! I was thrilled that these quilters all agreed to participate, and over the moon with what I saw as I popped into each new blog post just as you did! From the bottom of my heart, thank you Ladies! Your willingness to lend your talent and time is most appreciated!!

So... as Katy's fabrics have not arrived in the UK yet after some 44 days, I jumped in to round out the 14th spot.

NOTE: Please swap out a letter O in exchange for a letter A if you're playing the FQ Scramble. Sorry about that!

The block I made is called "Feather."

Taking the inspiration from the bee hop "turning over a new leaf, renewal, refresh, a change in direction," this feather design slid into my psyche and onto my design board as a representation of what 2013 has been like so far and some of what I hope it will continue to be.

I've been thinking about: trusting my instincts more, saturating my world with positivity, remembering not everything is permanent (good or bad), listening, observing & processing what the world has to show me, and just general do-gooding.

The Feather design is an homage to a dear friend who emdodies these things already and so much more. His connectedness and reverence for nature is something I deeply admire, and feathers in particular are pivotal in the expression of his values and beliefs. He's a rare gem.

I studied a LOT of red-tailed hawk feathers, and it was interesting how different they look from how they're typically illustrated or painted. They're not symmetrical, the markings are often horizontal rather than angled and they have a blurred look that fades in and out like an ikat. I wanted to capture some of that essence in my design.

I opted for a paper-pieced technique that would allow me to create tiny strips. I'm not a quilter, and I'd never done this before! I was a little concerned I was in over my head, but I new the variegated look would come through if I could pull it off. I consulted a string quilt block tutorial at Film in the Fridge and this tutorial on foundation piecing at Connecting Threads.

Above:
I sketched out the block I wanted (I love close-ups!), created a posterboard template, traced the feather pieces onto copy paper to use for paper-piecing templates and then cut a bunch of 1" by 5.5-6" fabric strips. The piecing is improv so it was a gamble that I'd have what I needed from the fat-eighth bundle. (I have 1 full strip of each fabric left!)

Above:
To paper piece the strips, lay a strip of fabric onto the preceding strip (right sides together) on top of your paper guide, stitch w/ a 1/4" seam allowance, press flat.

Below:
Fold the paper backwards, toward the wrong side and crease. This gets the paper out of the way of your rotary cutter. Trim as you wish for the size that you want. Sometimes I trimmed up to 1/4" away, sometimes just a sliver to even out. Vary the angles of your cuts, too.

Below:
When both sides of the feather papers are covered, use the posterboard template to trace and cut. Double-check how they fit together and which side is up. Sew a scant staystitch on the sides of the cutouts.

Creating the center "shaft" (technically, rachis) between the 2 feather pieces was tricky. This was going to make or break the look, and I was winging it (hahahahaha - pun not intended). I cut a piece of white fabric (organic cotton sateen in this case), using the template to match the curved edge. I stitched one side, just easing the fabric gently into the curve shape as I went. I trimmed down the white fabric to about 3/4", then stitched to the 2nd feather piece using a zipper foot. The zipper foot enabled me to get in pretty tightly and not leave much showing. I think you could applique a shaft or just skip this piece entirely.

All that was left was to add the borders on the outsides of the feathers. I used the posterboard templates to trace and cut these. Cut pieces wider than you'll need so you can trim it down accurately.

Extra Stuff:
I didn't remove the paper (yet) b/c my stitch length was too long and didn't perforate the paper enough to rip it right out. Booooo! I will have to figure out how to do this now - thinking about moistening the back with a sponge and using tweezers. Any ideas? Moral: use a smally-small stitch length!

Trace the templates onto both sides of your paper so you can keep track of where you're headed - to ensure full coverage. I had to fudge a couple spots.

Add seam allowances to your template! Duh. This turned out okay size-wise, but I completely forgot that part.

How cool would this feather design look in a huge, exaggerated scale?!

Above:
See how teensy the strips are!

Thanks for hopping along! Hope you're inspired and ready to try out these fabulous ideas!

To purchase New Leaf fabrics, visit Daisy Janie's stockist page to find a retailer.

The letter for the Fat Quarter Scramble is G!

NOTE: Please swap out a letter O in exchange for a letter A if you're playing the FQ Scramble. Sorry about that!!!

Play along and you can win a Fat Quarter Bundle of New Leaf. Details here. Email your answers to info (at) daisyjanie.com - no comments with your answer so we don't ruin the game! But comment otherwise, of course!!