Fall Free Motion Finish

I finished all the free motion quilting on my little fall wall quilt yesterday. I McTavished, or tried to McTavish the background. And it came out ok. But it still needs a little something.

I can't decide if I want to hyper-quilt in the feathers and the rest of the motifs or maybe try a little paint.

What it looked like before quilting the background, with the larger version

While I was thinking on paint versus thread, I decided to see what colors I had in which kinds of paint. I don't use the paints much, though I ought to play around with them more. I found them easily enough, tucked away safely in their plastic project box.

Washing my Paints

Yes, I had to wash my paints. Not clean up my paints, or even clean up the painting area. When I opened the box, I found two bottles had blown their tops!

Thankfully, the paint was contained within the box and didn't spread within the box the any of the brushes, sponges or paint sticks. In fact, the main offender wasn't actually paint but paint extender. It cleaned up pretty easily and I did see that I have enough colors and choices of paint to add some sparkle and color to this little wall quilt.

I have no idea how this happened. I do keep the paints in a backroom that gets less AC than the rest of the house, but it's not enough to cause them to swell with the heat.

I am still undecided about adding paint, but it does seem like a good piece for some play. Stay tuned and I'll show you what it looks like soon.

McTavishing

I really love the look of McTavishing, especially how Karen McTavish does her signature fill. I have her book on McTavishing, Mastering the Art of McTavishing, but somehow mine just doesn't have the swirly goodness that hers has. I know that it is in part due to the larger range of motion she has on a long arm. Since I'm quilting on my sewing machine, I just can't get the same long, sweeping curves that she can, at least not without repositioning my hands. But I know I can do better with more practice.

I have been toying with doing a series on McTavishing or maybe a quilt-along link party so we can work on the stitch together. What do you think? Anybody want to play along?

I'm linking this post up with Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday and Leah Day's Free Motion Friday.