Freemotion Quilting Linky Party

SewCalGal is holding a Freemotion Quilting  Linky Party during January.

I did not officially participate in the 2012 Freemotion Quilting Challenge...not because I did not want to but I just had to restrict myself in terms of the number of things that I was committing myself to at the time. Also, I had just started blogging and I must say, felt somewhat overwhelmed with the variety of projects that were directly speaking to me...a bit of inspiration overload.

I did however follow the Freemotion Quilting Challenge from month to month and did try out a number of things. All the tutorials were of such a high standard and I did learn a lot from them.

Here are some of the things I tried:

Diane Gaudynski's tutorial on feathers was the missing link for me...I finally managed to produce some decent looking feather shapes. Well, maybe not that decent looking in this picture, but I really felt that I was actually getting the shape. Following the tutorial I did continue to practice feathers throughout the year. While I probably still have a way to go, it certainly provided a solid foundation to work from and I did improve over the course of the year. Also discovered that I do better my my Machinger gloves off when I FMQ at a lower speed.

Also tried the Jester design from Wendy Sheppard during the August tutorial.
A fun design which I no doubt will use again.

Angela Walter's tutorial in July inspired me. Her tiling design was interesting and a fun way to jazz things up a bit. I went on a tangent here and ended up getting her book 'Freemotion Quilting'. This was another one of those occasions when things just clicked for me. I practiced the Concentric circles and discovered another one of her designs, the Swirled Hook which I had tried to 'get' unsucessfully for some time...for some reason her illustrations and explanations worked for me and after some practice I can honestly say that I now can do this design in my sleep. A very versatile design that works particularly well in sashings but also as a filler.

Cindy Needham's tutorial in June provided me with the idea to try her simple lines in the background of my little cat wall hanging. What a revelation...this worked fantastic and quickly and efficiently flattened out an area and bonus... looked absolutely stunning. Also taught me to let go of my need to be perfect as the lines are neither completely straight nor consistent.






Well, and then there is this little beauty

The December challenge with Patsy Thompson. I already posted about this before but just had to include this here again. I was so inspired, sat down and literally did this challenge straight away. This, i.e. quilting in borders,  is something I have struggled with for a while in terms of deciding re designs or simply having a go  at something a bit different...I was absolutely amazed at the outcome and am planning to do this again on a bit of a nicer piece of fabric...after doing the first 5 borders I also finally managed to tackle my own personal little challenge: to quilt some continuous feathers all around, something I had wanted to do for a long time and it worked absolutely perfectly. Even did some of Patsy Thompson's in-lining of the feathers and the motif in the middle (her little video was absolutely excellent). This was such a good practice piece to do and I learned heaps from completing it. Needless to say, discovered Patsy Thompson's webpage ...I think there will be a lot more feather quilting coming up for me.

While I have not mentioned all of the tutorials here, there was definitely something from each and every one that I took away, i.e. I just went the other day and bought some black netting to try Don Linn's way of marking designs on fabric...

In terms of tips...I reckon...PPP - Patience, Persistence and Practice.

Thanking SewCalGal and all her contributors for this amazing learning experience. Very much appreciated and I no doubt will continue to refer to the tutorials for as long as they are available on the net. Would encourage anybody to have a go and try out some of the designs or just read up on the advice that is provided in the tutorials. Brilliant.

Linking up to SewCalGal's FMQ Linky Party.


Karin