More FMQ Practice

Done a bit more FMQ practice. The first design is from Angela Walter's Book 'Free- Motion Quilting' and is called Concentric Circles. My squares are 8 inches which is a bit limiting, however I decided to give it a go. The design is surprisingly easy to stitch and looks great...fairly dense but great texture. I think this is about the size of the circles that is manageable. Any bigger and I reckon one looses direction...at least that is what happened to me on the domestic machine.

 And here is Circuit Board, a design that we have been doing earlier on Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays. I like the design but had not yet done it on the practice quilt. Bit of avoidance behaviour on my part, because I basically suck at it. Funny though, the design continues to look good even if you stitched it a bit wonky.

Karin

Quilt Along #29 - hearts

This week on Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays Leah showed us how to combine hearts (you can use any other shape you might like) with the 5 designs that we have been learning so far: Stippling, Zippling, Circuit Board, Loopy Lines and Sharp Stippling.

If you are wanting to improve your FMQ I highly recommend this Quilt Along. I am really noticing the improvement in my FMQ skill level compared to the beginning of the year. I can now sit down (even after a little break) and just go for it...I am far less concerned about imperfections and seem to have developed my own little rhythm that produces stitches that are on the whole pretty decent.

Here is my practice piece:

This is good fun

Close up

Using other shapes

The star is commonly used with the loops. Every time I do this, I have to stop and think which way to approach it, otherwise I get it wrong...very effective though and such a great playful design. I like the little leafy design...saw something like that in one of my quilting books and it seems to flow for me for some reason. That design seems to look good no matter how wonky you make the leaves and the veins really set it off. I wonder what else I could combine this with. Ran out of thread so I stopped here and continued on my UFO.

No questions...can't wait for the next design.

Until next time

Karin

Quilt Along #22-Wonky Block Quilt

Finished my wonky block quilt. I am really happy that I decided to do this one in the last minute even though I am still limping a week behind. Learned so much from doing this and I am really pleased with the outcome.

First of all - scale: kept loosely to a scale of a little bit less than 1/2 inch; that worked for most designs, but I discovered that some designs worked better at a 1/4 inch for me, i.e sharp stippling

Also, found this exercise really quite liberating as there was no point focusing on stitch quality. Had I done this, I would have gone mad. There are many issues in there...tiny stitches, wonky stitches and just plain ugly stitches but I found that the eyes seem to only see the majority of the stitching which looks absolutely fine. I was actually quite amazed by that and hence stopped worrying about it.










A look at the individual designs:

Loopy Lines design:
  

Not a problem but a bit tricky to fit into some areas depending on which direction you came from.

Sharp Stippling:

 Bit nervous about this one as I had read in some other posts that people had issues with that. I did two areas of this, one in a loop section and one larger area displayed above. As it turned out, I did two different scales. The above one is quilted at about 1/4 inch and that suited me somewhat much better. Once I got into the rhythm of this it just flowed and the effect is quite pretty. I think I prefer the design at this scale.

Zippling:

This was a big surprise to me...loved it. I am born to zipple. Worked like an absolute dream, could zipple myself out of any corner, had no issues with direction and the whole thing just flowed. Not sure I followed Leah's example of what this should actually look like. Seemed to develop my own way of doing this and have some pretty odd shapes in there. But again, the eye only sees the majority of the design which is consistently zig-zaggy enough. I was most impressed with this. Definitely will use this again.

Circuit Board:



Absolutely dreaded this one and nearly chickened out. Funny enough my brain does not appear to be wired for this one. Only worked for me after I drew myself a loose grid across the entire area (about 1.5 inches). This way I was surrounded by horizontal and vertical lines - while I did not quilt within those boxes I could always see the lines in the corner of my eyes. Not one of my favourites, even though it looks quite nice.




 Here is the end result.

Wonky Block Quilt 51" x 42.5"

Just need to find a proper name for this quilt and make a label.

Thank you, Leah, from Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesday for this great project. Learned heaps from it and (bonus) this was just the right idea for this fabric.

Questions I had from last Quilt Along (which I posted too late):

- how far do you quilt to the edge of the quilt?

- does anybody have any tips on how to remove blue chalk marks (the variety that is used for dressmaking? The packet says to use a damp cloth which I tried and it does not just dissolve, so I am wondering if it is going to come out at all.

- I have a Pfaff machine and have a drop-in bobbin case - would you use the Magic Bobbin washers with that?

Until next time

Karin

Quilt Along #17

Last week's design for Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays was a design called 'Circuit Board'. Looked simple enough in the video.

Here is my first attempt.

Bit hard to see...but believe me I'm a bit all over the place.

I used blue Rasant thread thinking that I would use that on my practice quilt. While this worked on the lighter material it is not going to work on the darker squares of my 'practice quilt' (bit of pre-planning would have been useful here) so I will probably switch to a cream thread. My batting is Soft and Bright, a needle punched Polyester batting made by Warm and Natural. Can't believe I am using Polyester...nice feel, clings to the fabric and is very light. No problem at all with FMQ. Stitching on it is easy with no tension issues. My first attempt was not bad except I could not get my lines straight and also found it difficult to judge the spaces in between.

Second attempt did not go much better...how on earth do you keep those lines straight? The more I concentrated, the worst it got. There goes my new found confidence.

I then started experimenting with a small ruler, i.e. holding it against my darning foot and using it as a guide to stitch against. That works brilliantly however was not very practical with all the changes in direction. I then got distracted and tried this to stitch-in-the-ditch of the strips of that sample. Now that works a treat and gives a really straight line. Something to remember next time I struggle with stitching-in-the-ditch (I am just about over stitching-in-the-ditch with the walking foot).

Third attempt

Getting better...My changes in direction are less rounded and that looks already much better. Must admit I don't find this design easy at all. For this sample I divided my block into four sections of about 2 inches and drew horizontal lines across  to use as a guide in stitching...that definitely made it easier. Maybe I should have drawn myself little boxes to stay within...or maybe I should just keep the shapes smaller.

Anyway, next attempt will be on the practice quilt...have to remember that this quilt will be for trying out new designs and that they will all be a bit wobbly. Like the texture of this design and can see that this would be great for use in sashings. Was a bit unsure though whether to interlock the design or just stitch it row by row.

More stitching-in-the-ditch coming up for me...my table runner is basted and ready to go...

Until next time

Karin