Relaxing FMQ fun

As I wrote on Tuesday, I have decided to pick up Angela Walters “Echoes and Curves FMQ Challenge” with the idea of finally getting comfortable with the Serpentine design!!

After I had quilted one section using the Serpentine design, it was time to turn the first corner….

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!

The trick was to keep coming back to the inside corner until you are in position to re-start the Serpentine pattern.

The next task was to quilt a lovely Plume Feather. I had tried them once before and wasn’t impressed, but this one went well!!

As I practiced, I found that I could quilt it from either direction!!

The design was perfected further in the larger center square….

Now WHY didn’t I like this challenge???

The next section was about echoes, whether they be Serpentine Curves or straight lines and Angela mostly left us to our own devices to come up with patterns to try…..

I chose Serpentines, Straight Lines, Feathers other curves……

It was so much fun to pick different ways to quilt areas of the quilt….

The quilt design itself is VERY asymmetrical so lends itself to lots of designs.

It was a FUN way to spend 2-hours in my studio on this cold, cold day!!

For Free-Motion Quilting ideas, be sure to check out my YouTube channel…… https://www.youtube.com/c/francesquilts/videos

Keep It Simple…..Quilt It Fast

Back in September, I showed you two banners that I had made for my church…..

They were no longer needed and had sat on my shelf for several years and I wasn’t sure what to do with them. When I asked my readers for an opinion, it was unanimous….

Turn them into quilts!!!

So, I took one and did just that!!.

I debated about picking the seams to release the top from the upholstery fabric backing but quickly decided that it wasn’t going to happen. Instead, I cut off the last navy border, leaving the bias piano-key one…..

Since the edge was bias, I added a line of stay-stitching and then basted it….

Now it was ready to quilt.

I wanted to do it quickly, so picked an easy design…..

As promised in the video, I will be giving more information about the Sway Rulers soon!!

I loved finishing this quilt so quickly and it has now been gifted. I hope that it brings much warmth and comfort!!!

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Do you struggle to decide what to quilt in your blocks? If so, check out my FREE series…..

Click HERE for more information

Boring to Beautiful – Stitched out

Yesterday I posted about taking a simple ruler and turning it into a great design……

The BIT question was whether or not I could actually QUILT IT!!!

It got off to a slow start as I forgot to turn on the camera (TWICE), and messed up the design once.

But…attempt number 4 was apparently the charm……

Check out the video…..

I am excited about this design and now I want to pull out all of my Spin-E-Fex rulers and see what I can do with them!!!

Have you ever used these rulers and what were YOUR results???

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If you have an interest in ruler quilting, check out this online course…..

Click HERE for more information

From Boring to Beautiful!

If you have been following “Free Motion Friday” for this past year, you know that I have been playing with grid quilting. I started with basic square grids and moved to big circles, and the latest have been small circles in a square design.

If you have missed any of these, please check out my YouTube Playlist……

So, this week I have been thinking about ways to design my own “grids” using tools that I already have.

My first thought was using one of the Westalee Spin-E-Fex rulers and I pulled out the simplest of all of the rulers…..

….the Westalee Spin-E-Fex #4.

At its simplest, it makes this shape……

I know….pretty boring.

If the shape is repeated four times, it makes these shapes…..

Also, nothing to get excited about!!

But, what if I combine those shapes….maybe like this…..

That has promise for a 6″ block!!

What if I add loops on each side…..

It looks even better when you turn it 45 degrees……

NOW….what if I add more “loops” to the corners…..

That is okay, but not my favorite.

How about if I add 3 loops to the corner but have two of them going a different direction?

Oh WOW…..I really like that one!!

I like that it gives the illusion of having two circles around the outside. If you can’t see it, just squint!!

Now the question is…..can I quilt it??

I like that it will only require four guidelines, but I will definitely have to be VERY INTENTIONAL in my practice to make sure that the points end up where they are supposed to!!!

Come back tomorrow and I will stitch this out for the first time…..ON CAMERA!!

NO PRESSURE!!!!

As I proofread this post, I realized that I have drifted from my original “grid quilting” design but sometimes you just have to go where the creativity takes you!!

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Prepping to quilt!!

One of my goals for the next 4 to 6 weeks is to start and finish the quilting on this bad boy…….

It is a BIG quilt and it will be a BIG job to quilt!!

Over the last 2 years (since I finished the top), I have thought a lot about how I was going to quilt it and have drawn out SO many ideas!!

My first thought was to use lots of colored threads, but the more I thought about it, I am thinking that I will go with lots of straight lines in the background colors, maybe something like this…..

Even though this is just a rough idea, it still means that I need to decide on threads and get them organized.

Fortunately, I had three of the colors needed…..

Light Grey Omni for the inside circle…..

(I won’t need much of this one).

Omni Medium Grey works perfectly for the next color gradation……

….and this Signature Black will be great for the darkest area…..

So that leaves one gradation to fill and an Omni Dark Grey should fit the part!!

It has been ordered which puts me ONE step closer to actually starting to quilt!!!

The next decision is what batting to use. I have toyed with using a double bat, but it would make a very large quilt sandwich even LARGER and I am not sure that I want to deal with that!!

I have been dreading this project for a long time and I need to make sure that the green circle doesn’t come into play with it…..