Otis the Owl - A Paper Pieced Snowy Owl

A of couple months ago (October 2012), I was eager to try out my new sewing machine, a Pfaff Ambition 1.5, but I didn't have any fabric or projects available.  My meager stash was still - stashed - away in boxes from my move home to Canada and wasn't to be opened until moving into our new house in November.  My good friend, Sheila, invited me over to sew and raid her fabrics.  I could use anything I liked. Yay!  So I brought over a pattern for a paper pieced owl found on Shape Moth here, and my shiny new machine.

Here is Joanne's, from Shape Moth, Otis the Owl Pattern.  How does she get her trees straight?

 

I decided to make my Otis a Snowy Owl, in honor of my return to Canada, and found all the necessary fabrics in Sheila's overflowing sewing room.  I sewed most of the block that afternoon, but we ended up upstairs eating Scout popcorn and drinking tea so it didn't get finished.

After I got into my house in November and finally set up my sewing room, I finished piecing it, and only just yesterday I did some quilting and turned it into a little art quilt for my sewing room wall.

This was just the project to put my new sewing machine through it's paces.  I learned that the STOP/START button is exactly where my Needle up/down button was on my Janome so at the end of a seam when I would normally put my needle up or down to turn a corner, I would press the START button by accident and take off like a bullet - as I always keep it on high speed.  It made me scream every time and Sheila would come running... A very frustrating habit to break!  I am not happy with the reverse buttons either, it does permanent reverse and I always seem to start out in reverse when I don't want to.  Also, I'm not sure the IDT is that great on this machine for machine quilting.  It seems to push the top layer a little, so I will have to work out how to manage that.  Perhaps letting up my presser foot pressure will work?  Oh, I also got to try out my alphabet for the first time too, what fun!


I also learned that it's been way too long since I FMQed and I SUCK at it.  I may need to learn to draw my pattern on with erasable marker instead of trying to do it 'freehand'.   I may need to rip out all of the quilting in the white areas of the owl because I went a little crazy with the cheeze whiz and overdid it by a mile.   But for now, it is done... so it will stay as is.

The background is a nice blue/grey with gold. Click to zoom!

Hop over to Shape Moth and see her beautiful projects.  Joanne is a very, very talented sewer and her quilts and projects are very inspiring.  I had the honor of having her review my Emmaline Bag pattern for Purse Palooza 2012 and it turned out beautifully.  You can see that post here.  Oh and check out this and this!

Thanks for looking, and always press to the dark side ;)