This week I struggled to find a design that I really wanted to practice on but finally settled on “Spiral Chain” from Leah Day’s “365 Free Motion Quilting Designs”….

I made the usual start on paper…..

…quickly realizing that my problem was going to be in keeping everything even!!!
I headed to the machine and was super happy with the first two rows that I did…..

The third row had a few issues as I ended up with it on a slant and the fourth row was a bit bigger in scale but still okay…..

At this point, I started getting bored with the design!! I have been watching a lot of Angela Waters videos and she talks about moving from one design to the other so I decided to try it….starting with some pebbles to fill in one area and a swirl to fill in the other…..

I like it!!
Then I decided to get really crazy and try my OWN design…..let’s start with a couple of curves…..

….and fill it in with an easy back-and-forth pattern…..

Now lets make another set of curved lines, but leave a 1/4 inch border between them. I used the edge of my foot to help gauge the 1/4 inch spacing……

I kept up this idea for a few minutes and was having a GREAT time……

But then I ran out of bobbin thread so called it quits for the morning!!
I enjoyed this idea of trying lots of different designs in one area and will definitely do this some more!!
Remember that I will be sharing my free “FMQ Boot-Camp” starting in April…..keep watching here for more information.
2 thoughts on “FMQ Bootcamp – making up my own designs….”
Enjoyed your new design along with the practice one. I find the swirls ver difficult. It take my brain awhile to get it. I haven’t made it to the machine yet just the paper. Actually I use a dry erase board for practice. Will practice more today. Thanks for sharing.
I luv this. I can’t imagine just doing the same thing for such a long time so so these divide and conquer sew appeal. Great job!!!