Free Motion Friday and the Leafy Meander

Well, I wrote this post once but it disappeared so here we go again!!!

Today it was time to once again attack the Flora and Foliage Quilt-A-Long from Angela Walters. I had lost momentum and frankly was scared of the next design. Those two emotions go a long way to turning a WIP (work in progress) into a UFO (Unfinished Object)!!!

I re-watched Angela’s video about the leafy meander and decided to practice on another piece. I was relatively happy with it so moved on to the designated top.

And, you know what, it wasn’t all that hard!!!!

My biggest problem was wanting to get smaller as I approached limited space areas. I had to keep reminding myself to quilt half-leaves rather than a bunch of smaller ones!!

Next, she wanted us to try the pattern as a paisley rather than a leaf. The only real difference is that you have a rounded top rather than a point…..

Next was using the leaf shape to fill in one side of an area. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to keep the shapes even so I lightly drew the design in…..

But once I started sewing, I couldn’t see the markings so ended up doing it free hand anyway. It turned out okay…..

There was another of these to do but the curves were bending out to the opposite side. With many of these designs, I really struggle to make the two sides match and I was having a hard time figuring out which way to sew next. I solved the problem by using my finger to “sketch” the shape several times before I started sewing…..

This simple movement made it easier to sew!!!

Next was to make larger leaves and fill them in with some other design. I found this harder to do because I had trouble placing the larger leaves into the design. If I was doing a larger area, I would probably mark where I wanted those large leaves to land.

Finally, she wanted us to do a fern type of design. I started out drawing it on my white board and one of the ladies at my retreat walked by and said “that isn’t working is it!!” She was right!!! I kept reviewing the video from Angela, kept drawing it over and over and finally ended up with something resembling her design……

I took it to the machine and was really pleased with the final result…..

I guess that practice really is the key!!!

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