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Friday, March 19, 2010

Outline or Stippling?

As usual, Wisconsin is ushering in Spring with SNOW.  I'm taking advantage of the nip in the air to work on my Winter's Song quilt.  Its decision time.  Outline the cardinals with my trusty, reliable walking foot?  Or live dangerously and do some FMQ stippling? or FMQ snowflakes?

To be honest, FMQ still scares me.  My heart pounds and I break out in a sweat, cuz if I mess up it'll be nearly impossible to rip out.  I have to remind myself its supposed to be FUN.   I did some very detailed hand applique on this quilt, so I'm leaning toward the simpler outline stitch. 

On a side note, I observed two male cardinals in chase this week.  Territory skirmishes have begun.  The male goldfinches are changing from olive drab fall/winter feathers to their bright yellow spring/summer plumage.  At the suet feeder I had a female flicker the other day.  Today the suet attracted a gray squirrel with a blond tail.  Despite all this activity, I've not yet spied a robin.  Perhaps I'll spot one tommorrow, being the first day of Spring!

4 comments:

Wayne Kollinger said...

Chris

I think snowflakes would suit this quilt to a T. That is, if you know an easy way to do them. Unfortunately, I don't.

As a second choice I would pick stippling over outlining. You might want to consider stippling all the white areas so that the cardinals and the squares pop.

Nice quilt.

Joanne said...

Your quilt looks great.
FMQ is fabulous once you get the hang of it. Maybe practice on a few smaller things, like table runners and pillows? You might be surprised how easily it will come! Good Luck.

SueWis said...

Hmmm, I think you should stipple around the birds but not over the top of them.

Can't believe you haven't seen robins yet! We've had lots of them!

Mel said...

I LOVE cardinals, though I've never seen one in person! Beautiful quilt!