More Free Motion Quilting

In caes you missed the last post, I am working on improving my Free Motion Quilting (FMQ) skills. I'm participating in the FMQ Challenge organized by sewcalgal: FMQ Challenge

sorry, I don't know how to make the link so you can click on the image, use the underlined link above

There are monthly tutorials by FMQ experts. It's incredible! And once you do the work, take a picture of it to post and get entered into a drawing for awesome prizes each month and then grand prizes at the end of the year!  sewcalgal is a Goddess for putting this together and our experts are Angels for sharing their knowledge with us.  Every time I talk to someone about quilting, I tell them to get on the website and join the challenge!

Oh, I LOVE this challenge. I can hardly believe what I'm learning to do! I've completed a couple more of the tutorials and I am on fuego, baby.
Here's my favorite so far, June challenge with Cindy Needham.  She works mostly whole cloth quilts, and you can see why.  Her quilting alone is an art form.  A pieced quilt would take away from the quilting itself!




Here's my first attempt to fill various spaces with different patterns in each area.  It's so fun.

I also did the January tutorial with Frances Moore:

And now I have enough purple squares to assemble a crib size quilt.  I'll assemble and bind it then send it off to Project Linus to comfort some small child in the hospital.

Well, kids are off with a friend all day, so time to sew some more while I'm free...

Free Motion Quilting

Remember that studio I was all excited about moving into?  Of course I posted pictures right away.  NOT.  Oh well, now it's even better.  Why, you ask?  Well, I'll tell you.  My wonderful, loving, spoil-me husband sprung for a top-of-the-line sewing cabinet for me.  All you sewers out there, I got a Koala!  Uh-huh, be jealous because it is SEW sweet.  It's a DualMate Plus, which means a place for my Ellegante embroidery machine and my Eclipse serger (I'm a Babylock girl).  And my wonderful, loving, spoil-me parents paid for the upgrades, like the shelving and storage package and the outback extension.  Then I spent hours attaching shelves and deciding what goes where (yes, a little OCD in the genes, thanks Dad!)  I'll spare you the fifteen iterations of potential furniture layouts I created before choosing the model, or the four iterations of furniture layout once I chose the model.

PS: My Mom was wrong, it doesn't take up the WHOLE room, just 40% of it.

So what am I sewing now that I have my first ever sewing cabinet?  Yes, sad but true.  I've been sewing since I was what, six?  First time I've sewn with a machine inset into the table top.  It really rocks!  (Duh).

Anyway, I am working on improving my Free Motion Quilting (FMQ) skills.  I'm participating in the FMQ Challenge organized by sewcalgal: FMQ Challenge

sorry, I don't know how to make the link so you can click on the image, use the underlined link above

There are monthly tutorials by FMQ experts.  It's incredible!  And once you do the work, take a picture of it to post and get entered into a drawing for awesome prizes each month and then grand prizes at the end of the year!

Here are my quilt sandwiches for the challenge so far.  I'm doing my practice work on quilt sandwiches, but when they are all done I'll be combining them into quilts for Project Linus and Quilts of Valor.

February Challenge, Diane Gaudynski, www.dianegaudynski.net  Her work is gorgeous and so detailed.  It's the perfect example of more quilting is better.  Her lines in this piece are a scant 1/8 inch apart for the fill!

My Echo Feathers with "meandering" fill around them:

...and then I tried a different shape. I need star patterns for the Quilt of Valor I'll be doing. I doodled a few ideas, but following the star outlines gave it a very boxy look. I played with it and came up with these waves, giving a waving flag look to the fill:

The May challenge was by Anne Fahl, http://annfahl.blogspot.com/ I used her continuous fill to create a daisy fill that matched my fabric on this adorable Lazy Girl's design Miranda Day bag. I left out the spiral in her centers so they would match the fabric daisies.

 And my last pictures to post today are from Leah Day's challenge in May.  Her blog is incredible, with hundreds of FMQ design ideas.  If you're not sure what to use, she'll have the perfect design and tutorial.  Her books should be next to every FM Quilter's machine!  http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/

When I did the "railroad ties", I sewed across a marked line, but I didn't sew the line itself.  I think it looks a little more like straight line stippling that way.  The wavy line was very relaxing to work on!

The most valuable advice I got from these tutorials is:

stop and catch your breath, don't try to just keep going

and

doodle doodle doodle!

OK, time to take the kids to swim team practice!