DQS7

*GASP* I know... I've been gone a while. I got distracted by a writing project, quitting my job, finding and starting a new one, being sick twice in the last two months.

I finished my quilt for DQS7. Quite pleased with it, though I didn't get to do as much to it as I would have liked. The entire quilt was a learning process for me, from designing a circle quilt from scratch, in Adobe Illustrator, to the applique, to binding a quilt with irregular edging. I even used my new sewing machine to quilt it, with the walking foot, rather than the big beast.

This little quilt went through three sewing machines. My Brother CS-6000i decided to have tension issues. I love that particular machine so much, but when we took it into the local sewing machine shop, it would cost $75 to service it because it's computerized. The machine only cost me $150 :( Then, a friend of mine loaned me his Brother machine, not computerized, but with the capability to do a satin stitch (I've not figured out how to shorten the zig-zag stitch on my CS-6000i to do such thing). I appliqued the bird on using that machine.

Then, my mother-in-law generously offered to purchase a new sewing machine for me, as I was waffling about spending $75 to repair a machine that only cost twice that. I eagerly agreed, and took the opportunity to upgrade. I again went with a Brother, this time the PC-210, the Project Runway edition. I am in love. This machine is wonderful! I'll post pics later, in another post, and move on with the story. Phoenix Unbound was quilted on this new machine, using a couple of decorative stitches (a first), a metallic thread (another first for me!), and my walking foot (owned for two years and never used until this quilt).

I'm very glad I made this quilt, but very disappointed in myself that I forgot to take a quality photograph of it before I sent the quiltie out. My hubbie took a quick pic with his cellphone, which I am very glad for.

Pardon the grainy-ness and the weird tones... I tried to color-correct this in Photoshop as the original photo was very yellow.
You can kind of make out the wavy stitch I used to do the rays in the white circle. Unfortunately, you can't make out the variety of aquas and reds that I used in the inner circle or outer border. I really love how the yellow actually manages to tie the whole quilt together.
The 'phoenix' didn't come out quite as fiery as I'd hoped... It looks more like a loon, but I'll take it! I used fusible to get it to sit in the right place, and pretty much winged the machine satin stitching to get it to stay down.