Quilted Petticoat cont... (2)

I'm posting about the quilted petticoat in numbers from here on out as I don't know how often I'll actually work on it. I think it's going to be my 'feeling blah' project.
Although today is a beautifully cloudy day, I'm feeling very blah. Perhaps it has to do with missing Mom, who is coming home tomorrow! singing & dancing the happy dance!

Anyway...
when we last left out intrepid quilting adventure, I had:
- cut the batting to shape. (the top is still to the top, not at the finished level... which will be below the pocket slits).
- finished the design.
- quit for the night.

The most recent progress was:
9/06/09
- making a "stencil" of the pattern.
- transferring the pattern to the silk (yay Prismacolor!)
9/07/09
- decided not to sew the back seam together right away as per the directions in Fitting & Proper and after examining several originals (via Google Image search).
- started quilting.



The stencil was pretty easy.
-I used card stock and transferred the design from the Frankenstein original by putting it on the window & tracing. (First grade art class to the rescue!)
-Then I put packaging tape over the design to make it a little more stable, as there are some very delicate areas.
-Cut it out with an exacto knife, leaving a few key places to hold everything together. (This was after the pin-hole fiasco...).








Transferring it was a bit tricky and not an exact science.
(The first thing I tried was the pin-hole & powder trick. It didn't work.
I tried cinnamon, mustard, cornstarch and paprika and they all made an ungodly mess. Though they smell wonderful individually, they don't smell that yummy mixed together with paper & silk.)
-I measured 5" up on the first panel and marked that, then 5 1/2" on the second, tapering to 5" as it nears the other side to make up for the difference in length.
-I marked the silk with a Prismacolor Pencil (peach) and then filled in the missing bits after moving the template. My friend Randy has assured me that Prismacolor washes off. He'd better be right. Had to sharpen the pencil after each tracing.
The repeat worked out pretty well, not perfect, but I'm too lazy to say "do-over," and it's only a few leaves off.
Shadow likes the quilt, but won't walk on it. This didn't prevent him from trying to climb it while Moon was sitting on it... on the work table... where she isn't supposed to be. But then I was working on HER quilt. She sat in the chair & watched the entire time.

Quilting is going OK.
I can't use the modern rocking stitch as it's too big for this design. Tried backstitching, which looked great on the silk side, but not so hot on the linen. I really want this to look good from both sides.
- Instead I'm using a 2 handed back & forth stitch, one stitch at a time. This way, I've got 8-10 stitches per inch vs. 4-6 the other.
- I am a bit confused on how to secure my thread at the end, but by the time this monster is done, I'll have it figured out.
- The first flower & the two small leaf-bit things took about 2 hours.
I may finish before the world ends in 2012... but more likely I'll stop watching t-v while working on this project and it'll go a lot faster... and perhaps my snarky mood will pass for more uplifting things!

9/9/09
Quilted more. Finished first repeat.