I'm Not a *Pink* Flamingo

This small quilt is the outcome of playing around with my latest stencil and leftover fabrics from other projects.

Let me show you how I did it:

Paint muslin fabric with the help of a stencil.  -Who said all flamingos are pink?- Then lay  a fluffy high loft polyester batting underneath the muslin.

Cut small circles from fabric that has been ironed with steam a seam interfacing on the back, placed them on top of the flamingo and ironed in place.

With thin #50 sew fine thread and in a free motion setting in my sewing machine I sewed carefully all around the flamingo shape and the circles. When finished, I cut the excess batting from the back. 

With thick aurifil #12 cotton thread, embroider around each circle then sew delica seed beads at the end of each flower petal.

Choose a paper laminated fabric for the bottom and a translucent fabric with mistyfuse for the sun.

Sandwich the top with cotton batting and a back fabric.

Load the machine with glide thread in the needle and bobbin and start to sew/draw with plumes and meandering stitches to fill the whole quilt.

Thread Tension Practice in my HQ Sweet Sixteen Machine

"I love my Plumes"

 

The day I sold my HQ Avanté sewing machine I had mixed feelings, I was sad to let go of such a wonderful machine but at the same time I was glad she was going to a loving house once I met the new owner, a kind Canadian lady.

Some weeks passed and finally I decided to buy an HQ Sweet Sixteen Machine. Once my machine arrived I started to play with it and since I like to change threads constantly I had some difficulty with the tension. No matter what I did, how many times I loosened or tighten the bobbin case, or the spring in the top, I couldn't find the right tension.

I tried pre-wound bobbins from Bobbin Central which have a *magnetic* ring. I decided to order some and give them a try. It worked!
 
Let me show you what I did:

When I ordered my machine I asked for an extra bobbin case (I always do that with every sewing machine I have, so I can play around). I took out the backlash spring and replaced it with the magna glide pre-wound bobbin. I chose a hot pink color and only use this one for this exercise; what I changed was the upper thread for each feather.

You can see on this sample, I practiced feathers with: LYI 40 weight thread, Signature 40 weight thread, Kingtut 40 weight thread, Sew easy 50 weight thread, Kimono silk 100 weight thread, Lava 30 weight thread and Glide 40 weight thread.

You can see the back side. Once the bobbin thread was balanced it was not difficult to adjust the tension for the upper thread! I was so happy and confident that I decided to start a small project using all these colorful and yummy threads.

With a temporary marker, I marked a design (in this case one of my stencils) on a light colored fabric, sandwiched with batting and a backing fabric.

I chose to work freely without much planning. Once the bird was finished, I quilted the background with glide thread on top.

I am very happy with this discovery! I'm a happy customer :)