Quilt Along #45 - My FMQ year

This is the last Quilt Along for the year. To start off with, a huge 'Thank you' to Leah from Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesday for organizing and running this weekly Quilt Along. It has been amazing.

Last year actually around this time, I decided that I wanted to concentrate on FMQ for the coming year. This arose out of  a realization that I needed to get a bit more serious about FMQ if I wanted to expand my skill levels. Up to then, I would produce quilt after quilt and every time it came to the quilting I felt I was starting all over again in terms of FMQ...this invariably meant that I would return to the same designs because I felt more comfortable doing them. At one of the quilt shows that year I was again admiring some FMQ and realized it was time I do something about this. While not overly confident, I was sure that this was something that could be learned with time.

These were the two designs that I would normally do on my quilts, some basic stippling and my trusted leaf design.

I went on Leah's blog to look at some designs to pick for some practice when I saw Leah talking about the Quilt Along. I initially hesitated when I realized I probably would need to set up a blog...but then thought 'what the heck'...this also became an adventure, but that is another story.

My FMQ year

We have done some amazing work over the year...I looked back over the posts recently and realized how extensive this was. Initially we did some basic FMQ...lines, in-the-ditch stitching, stippling. Then came the little Wholecloth...I remember taking one look, thinking 'I cannot do that'. Well, it turned out stunning! After that we did several different designs, and I discovered I was born to zipple. I could actually zipple myself out of the tightest spot and fill any space pretty consistent.

I think by then I had produced what I called my 'practice quilt'. Just squares with some sashings in between with a simple border. This was invaluable as it meant that I could just pull it out from week to week and practice the designs on there...a huge time saver. Lots of practice of stitching in-the-ditch and backtracking and most of all, practice in not being perfect. Also discovered that I really do better with fairly contrasting thread rather than the blend-in variety. And who would have thought but I started to use Polyester batting and Polyester thread and ...nothing happened!

The Wonky Block quilt...what an adventure. Never had FMQ an entire quilt before.

I have learned so much this year. I think what has stood out most for me is that I am now:

- not afraid to FMQ in-the-ditch...simply had to get over that
- can backtrack over my stitching in an orderly fashion (more or less)
- not so reluctant to try new and different designs (have a look at my recent post So Inspired)
- able to just sit down and usually FMQ without any major tension or thread issues (and if there are, I am not so clueless)
- able to produce some fairly consistent stitches and seem to know what speed I need to use with different designs, and

I am totally addicted to FMQ!

Practice certainly is the key to FMQ and the Quilt Along has helped in pushing me along. Along the way I have enjoyed the company of other quilters participating in the Quilt Along. Lots of interesting questions and lots of great stitching by everyone and very kind comments all along. I have enjoyed this Quilt Along and am looking forward to the new year.  Definitely will keep up the FMQ.

Until next time

Karin

Quilt Along #44- Starry Mess

This is Quilt Along #44 in Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays and the design for this week  is Starry Mess.

Starry Mess

I did mine on a smaller sample. I do not find doodling this star very easy at all, quite the contrary. I have to often stop and really think about this one and hence my stars turned out a bit on the smallish side.  I easily loose direction in this simple design, seems my brain cannot cope with the direction of the lines too well. Overall though turned out alright...I think that I would struggle making this on a larger scale and keeping the consistency of spacing in the design. However, quite like the random appearance of this.  This could also be quite effective in a border , to jazz things up a bit, I think.

Until next time

Karin

Quilt Along #43 - Cat Hairball Filler

Hi...it is Quilt Along #43 on Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays. The design for this week is Cat Hairball Filler...had to laugh at the title of this design.

Sorry about the photo...did not have time to do it again...
Possibly one of the easiest designs to do. It is literally just doodling in e's of varying sizes across the area and for once being able to go over all the lines. Speed is of the essence here as Leah had pointed out in her video and she was not wrong. My machine was working overtime to do this design. The thing that I noticed though is that I could only do this design at a particular scale (1inch approximately)...somehow a larger version does not work that well for me.



Unfortunately this is super hard to see...did not think about this when I tried this pattern. Need to invest in some more solid type material.

Karin

Quilt Along #42 - Spiral Ornaments

This is another one of Leah Day's quilt busting designs - Spiral Ornaments.

I am happy to say that I don't have any quilts to complete at the moment, except for the binding on my 'Practice quilt'. This design would have been good for the sashing in that quilt.

I am glad I watched Leah's video...before this, I imagined that this would be stitched all in one hit  and I wondered how I would keep this consistent. Then discovered that Leah just stitched a line and did the spirals after. So simple.

This is a great design. I could imagine this also in a border...with the right quilt this could look really nice and it uses a lot of space in a very short time, so is a brilliant idea to finish off a section very quickly. I stitched mine on a little practice piece and tried two versions, as I had already forgotten how many times one was supposed to go around it...I like the first one where I went around it three times. It's very easy to stitch and is really relaxing.










Linking up to  Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays.

Until next time

Karin

Quilt Along #41 - Practice Quilt Finish

I have finished my practice quilt...well, only the binding left to go. Can't believe it. A whole year of practice...this was so worth it.

I completed the vertical sashings with the Echo Shell design and threw in a few rows of swirls for good measure. This all took a bit longer than expected and involved heaps of stitching-in-the ditch and backtracking. Certainly was good practice....I also used Echo Shell in my Japanese Table Runner and noticed the difference. No hesitation to give this a go and less concern with getting it right. Quite liberating.

And here it is...unfortunately this is really hard to photograph and this is the best I could do (without increasing the image size to enormous proportions)...for those who have not seen the quilt as a whole. I like the border...looks all very organic.



Practice Quilt - FMQ Quilt Along with Leah Day

 

Close up of my handiwork. Lots of different designs in here ... all of the designs from Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays, some from the Freemotion Quilting Challenge over at SewCalGal, some from Angela Walters FMQ book and some of my own. Very eclectic.

 

 

What am I going to do now? I have been so used to just getting it out and having a bit of a play...well, might just have to do another one. This is very addictive...

 

Linking up to Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays.





Until next time

Karin

Quilt Along #40 - Flower Power

Can't believe how quick this year has gone. This is Quilt Along #40 on Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays and this week's design is Flower Power.

Leah is using this design as a Quilt Buster, i.e. a design that is stitched on a larger scale to cover a huge amount of space on your quilt. My 'practice quilt' is pretty much used up and I had only one square left, so I watched the video on how to stitch this design on a smaller scale.



Flower Power

My flower turned out better than expected except I made some of the petals a tad larger than they should have been. However, it turned out pretty nice and I decided to disguise the unevenness of my flower with some echo quilting. I don't have a lot of experience in echo quilting, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to have a go at it. A bit wonky, but considering that this is all freehand, I am very happy with the outcome. I think, if I was to do this again, I might draw myself a square around the flower, so I don't overshoot with the larger petals. Very pretty design.

Linking up to Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays.

Until next time

Karin

Quilt Along #39- Matrix

Made some progress with my 'Practice Quilt'.

But first a bit about the design for this week's Quilt Along Wednesday with Leah Day. The design is called Matrix and is one of those designs that I have been admiring the first time I found the Freemotion Quilting Project on the web. While lines always look so easy I never tried this one because I did not think that I would be able to follow lines in a consistent manner.  I have done some grid quilting before with the walking foot but do not enjoy it...too much marking and there are just too many threads to sew in after.

I had much more success this week with my quilting...I do not think I was in the right space for quilting last week's design. This week everything worked so much better. I even managed to stitch nicely in-the-ditch along the sides of the design. Almost got a bit suspicious...what is going on?...this is not usually that easy. Then a few needles broke and that was almost reassuring (yarn got caught up). I stitched the design in one of my remaining squares. I did not use my Freemotion Echo Quilting foot as I thought it was important to practice 'eyeballing ' the spaces between the lines. I have an open square FMQ foot and the judging of distances takes some practice.

Have a look...this turned out absolutely brilliant. I really like this and from now on this will be my grid of choice. So dynamic and interesting to look at. Should have tried this ages ago.

Matrix

I also liked the look of the half finished design even though it is just lines across the square...looks very effective, and yet so simple

As I was on a roll I continued on the sashings.  Used two of the designs I found in Angela Walters book 'Freemotion Quilting'.  Just some simple loops and a nice swirl scroll. They both work very well in the sashing (2 " wide).






















The way I am going I should get this quilt done by Xmas (only got one square left, the vertical sashings and part of the border). This quilt is interesting to look at with all the different designs and will be great to have around when looking for designs because you cannot only see the design but feel its texture and also have a good idea about the best size for the design.  At the moment I am thinking that I might do another one, as this really has been good fun to do.

Until next time

Karin

Quilt Along #38 - Lost Data

Continuing with Leah  Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays. This design follows on from Jagged lines from last week and is called Lost Data.

Time to share some 'not so great' stitching.

 

Had major issues with the design...tried it twice and cannot say that I got any better at it. The first trial was on the greenish looking Batik fabric. I don't think my machine liked this. Had some issues with the actual stitching as well as the design. Particularly going backwards seemed to create some wobbly stitches. Left it for a day and came back to it, however the Jagged Lines just did not work for me. I don't think I managed once to put a gap in my design in the middle. I think I have some sort of problem with the angles of the zig-zag lines. Maybe I am doing them too tight and that then leads to some awkward angles....no idea really,  but somehow I seem to always end up with really odd, hard to manage spaces, often veering completely to the side. Thoroughly enjoyed the Zippling though...

Might have to stick with Flowing Lines for the border of my practice quilt.

Linking up to Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays on the Freemotion Quilting Project.

Until next time

Karin

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 #37- Jagged Lines

It's Quilt Along #37 on Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays. The task for this week was another edge-to-edge design called Jagged Lines.

I went into the sashing of my 'practice quilt' for that. Again I struggled with quilting-in-the-ditch on top and on the bottom, but overall it turned out alright. I just have to accept, it is white thread and I will not have perfection here.

It was very late but I really felt like doing some Flowing Lines and tackled the border. This was also an exercise in using my new Freemotion Sensormatic Echo Quilting foot for the machine ...I posted about it here...if you are curious about what that looks like. Amazing contraption.

This time I paid much more attention to how I was stitching the lines (had some pretty odd shapes when I first tried it). As the border is bigger it was much easier to execute as I could do more sweeping type movements. Also realised that the fabric itself has some flowing lines on it which I actually had not realised before. I did not fill the gaps...this is purely due to how the 'practice quilt' is starting to feel  in terms of its density. Somehow I decided that Flowing Lines in itself would be the right match for the rest of the quilting (and I was right...it feels exactly right).

White thread on dark blue...would not have done this a year ago.

I am very happy with this. The lines look great and the Echo Quilting foot helped with making them pretty consistent. I left bigger gaps to keep the border from becoming too dense.

I did not turn the corners, but went straight across as I am not sure what else I am going to do with the borders. Must say, I really like the look of this.

Questions:

- (apologies if this was addressed before) I started quilting the border from the middle out to the right, facing the border and having all the bulk behind the machine. That, of course, meant that I then had to turn the quilt to complete the other side, this time with the bulk of the quilt in my lap. This was very awkward and created a few hassles with just having to manage the bulk. What is the best way to go about this?
I thought about sewing it side ways but thought better of it as I have a fair bit of compaction going on on the quilt and I thought that this could lead to some distortion in the border.

- starting to get a bit worried about the compaction...at the moment I am quilting wherever I fancy as the quilt is secured by quilting in-the-ditch, however after I had done the top border, I wondered whether I now should continue with the side borders rather than doing the bottom border first (I was thinking of doing Jagged Lines in the bottom to match the top a bit). The quilt itself is pulling in the batting and the border is starting to crinkle (as is the sashing).


Time to link up to Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays

Until next time

Karin

Quilt Along #36 - Trapped Paisley

This week's task on  Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays  was a continuation of the Flowing Lines design, however instead of filling the spaces with stippling, Paisley was used to fill in the gaps.

Originally I was going to go straight onto the border of my practice quilt to give that a go, however, I thought I better try this out first to see whether this worked for me and also to get a sense of how tight this was going to be.

This is the approximate size of my border. The stitching is very rough on my sample, however it did give me a good idea on how this was going to work in the border. I do not find it too tight but am not sure I would want it across the entire border. Not sure whether it was just me but I did a lot of backtracking. Also tried the lines as fillers...this I saw at Pat's from Colour Me Quilty. I thought that was a brilliant idea and looked great and was a quick way to fill in the gaps. 

Maybe I should combine 2 -3 different fillers across the border...hmm...undecided.
Ran out of time to do anything else.

Until next time

Karin

Quilt Along # 35 - Goldilocks

This week's homework on Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays  was the design Goldilocks which is an extension of the Flowing Lines design from last week. Leah demonstrated it in her sashings on the video in her post.

I could not use my sashings for that as they are only 2 inches wide and if I wanted to stipple in it, I would have had to microstipple and I decided that that would be too dense for the sashing. Hence I needed to do the design in one of the blocks which allowed some space for the design. Sorry, photos are not that good but I need to fill up some of the lighter colour squares by now (almost filled up my entire practice quilt - very exciting).

and the back

I'm afraid my design did turn out somewhat differently as I started to veer off to the side making this more of a filler design...this happened as my square started to dangerously puff out on one side (due to some pulling on my part, I think). Hence, I needed to severely flatten this to avoid serious puckers.  Got away with it and then stippled the other side half way down to match it a bit. Looks quite alright. I reckon this could look quite nice in a border but wonder how you would stitch that at the bottom...

Question: If you were to stitch the design in the border would you stitch off the border into the batting travelling to the next point to re-enter your border...would this work?

Linking up to Quilt Along #35 on the Freemotion Quilting Project.

Until next time

Karin

Quilt Along # 34- Flowing Lines

It is Quilt Along # 34 on Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays. This is the Flowing Lines design.

As I have sashings in my practice quilt I decided to give this design a go in the sashing. The design itself was not that difficult, however the stitching-in-the ditch was. Really struggled with going sideways in the ditch particularly on top of the sashing where I could not see properly. So overall my focus was on the stitching-in-the ditch and my flowing lines were not quite as wiggly as I would have liked them to be. I think as soon as I approached the ditch I would already tense up...did a fair bit of cheating with stops and starts and undoing wonky stitching, as some of the in-the ditch stiching was positively outrageous and it showed up like anything with the white thread.

Flowing Lines design

 

Some wider than originally intended gaps





Swirl design in inner border

Also did the swirl with hooks design in the inner border. Works like a dream and covers a lot of space very quickly. This inner border is 2 inches wide and the design seems to be particularly suited to this. Has just become my new favourite border design. You can find this design in Angela Walters book 'Free-Motion Quilting'.

Until next time

Karin

Quilt along #33

Still doing Paisley in Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays. This design is called Pointy Paisley.

Lots of backtracking and like the Snake Paisley I found that I had lots of very awkward spaces to fill.  Strange really, I did not seem to have the same problem with the Lava Paisley...somehow that sat better with my brain and flowed much more evenly.
I think in this sample I possibly went around the shapes too many times and the design gets lost a bit...I think I prefer it a little bit smaller and more defined. Never mind, good practice.

Also practised swirls with hooks while I was at it and was impressed. After a whole week of doodling the shape and trying to fill up areas I was able to translate this into my square without too much of a difficulty. Goes to show the power of doodling your design first...

My 'practice quilt is taking shape, only a few more squares left before I will have to go into the sashing

Until next time

Karin

Quilt Along #31 - Lava Paisley

This week on the Quilt Along Wednesdays with Leah Day we are sewing a design which is called Lava Paisley.

I have been doing a bit more FMQ practice this week and gave the design a go earlier (see earlier post). That actually was a lot of fun and while this is not a design that instantly appealed to me, I was amazed at how nice it turned out. I found it easier than the 'normal' Paisley design as it did not seem to matter whether or not one got the distances and wiggles exactly right...the design seemed to just flow and evolve.

Here is my completed square on my 'practice' quilt:

Bit all over the place and for once I am glad you cannot see the stitching close up...I was trialling the Mettler Polyester thread and don't think I got the tension quite right. However, this is the 'practice' quilt and therefore it will be good enough. This is as much a practicing piece as it is also an exercise in letting go of perfectionism. When I had a look at it from a bit of a distance I was actually amazed at how effective this looks, uneven stitches and all. This quilt will be one of a kind.

Linking up to Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays.

Until next time

Karin

Quilt Along #30 - Paisley

Here are my efforts for this week's Quilt Along #30 at Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays

Did a bit of a trial run first on a bit of a scrap piece of backing.

Knew I would have difficulties filling in the spaces, however went onto my practice quilt and had a go.

Bit hard to see but looking good from a distance

 

 

The design went alright...did not realise how much backtracking this involved. Initially I followed a sort of direction from left to right, but this soon changed and I found myself all over the place and stitching the paisley upside down and sideways...started off a bit bigger but as I went along the design got a bit smaller.

Question

- my biggest issue were the odd empty spaces; do you just put lines in there to fit in with the overall design or leave some empty spaces?

Until next time

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 #25 - Cucumber Vine

Another great design from Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays called Cucumber Vine.

Now I could pretend that I have not seen this design before, however this is the one design that I had picked out late last year to practice. I kept my practice piece of that design because I was obviously very impressed with that.

Here is what it looked like last year

Now, it will be interesting to compare how I am stitching this design this year, so I had a go on my practice quilt:

Bit hard to see

Back

Not much different...it seems last year I did the whole design a bit more dense and you can see some hesitation here and there. I think now the design looks a bit more well rounded.

Last year I also played a bit with making this design fit into an inner border or sashing of 2 or 2 1/2 inches and this is what I came up with (I actually saw something similar on some pre-printed shopping list where an overall design like this was as a watermark in the background):

I actually had forgotten that I had this in my little notebook:

Playing with the idea

I substituted my usual pattern of leaves and hooks with the swirls...pretty sure this is not a new design and that somebody somewhere will have thought of this before.

Anyway, hope you like it...I think it makes a nice small border or sashing design and sews very easily due to its repetition.

Looking at this I had to laugh...how consistent are those two lines in terms of spacing and shapes...no, I did not measure this out or plan it this way.  Actually did not see this on my little practice piece until I put up the photo just now. This is actually a good example of how some designs become like riding a bike, totally internalised. I do a lot of the leafy type designs and have done several smaller borders with similar designs. While I am a perfectionist by nature this is almost a bit freaky - the same slant of the curves, the same shape in the leaves. I assure you I am quite normal otherwise (lol).

My 'practice ' quilt is coming along!

Until next time

Karin

Quilt Along # 24 - Tree Roots

Last week's design in Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays was called Tree Roots. Similar to Bare Branches, however this time with curvy lines. I did a bit of a practice and then stitched it onto my practice quilt.

Here is what it looks like

Not sure what happened, but something was not right with my tension...I used the same thread and the same tension that I had used before (I write this down nowadays!), had the same material and still....when I started off, the top thread floated across the fabric. Could not believe it. Maybe my machine is just temperamental...had to change the tension to a much lower setting before the stitch looked alright. No idea why this occurred...had me scratching my head for a while though, looking whether I maybe mixed up the threads, double-checking what I had written down. Still wondering about that.

Back- bit easier to see the design

Anyway, the design did not give me too many problems other than the spacing. By the time I really got into it, I had started to stitch the branches much closer. I think that would probably even itself out over a bigger area, so I did not worry about it too much. Like this one a bit better than the Bare branches...just flowed a bit better for me and no puckers this time.

Apart from this I am working on writing up some patterns. Am thinking about putting them up on one of those web sites for sale. At the moment wondering about whether or not some of the fabric might create problems with the copyright and have been doing some reading around this...that just about does your head in. It's not as if anybody will make millions from selling a few patterns. I do offer my patterns to the magazines here from time to time and had a few of my quilts published. While I do enjoy this and have and got a real buzz out of it (they do some amazing photography of the quilts) once that pattern is with the magazine I cannot really use it again and in many ways that is a pity. I have come to think that there has to be a better way to share my work which could then also include putting up some patterns for free.

Will just have to push on with this and make it happen...have been procrastinating for some time now.

Until next time

Karin