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

FMQ Fillers….the last ones

Last week I worked thru the final installment of Angela Walters’ “Filler Free-Motion-Quilting Challenge”.

There were a couple of older designs that I had tried before and a few new ones too.

The first was the wood grain design and I have had major struggles with it!! I tried it first in one of Angela’s previous challenges and remember writing the words….”I was completely at sea!!”

I understand the basics of the design but have trouble keeping the lines parallel…..

I finally stopped, ripped, and re-sewed the wavy line…..

filling in the area that I missed…..

I was NOT happy with how this ended up…..

The next pattern was based on the woodgrain but added some other fillers. I dreaded doing it but found that it was actually a bit easier…..

Next was a squared-off woodgrain…..

Again…..not a favorite!!

In the next section, I basically made up my own design. It was a mixture of echoed lines and interwoven lines……

I started each section with a box…..

….and then filled it in with parallel-iah lines…..

….before moving on to the next box…..

I like how it turned out…..

The final design was my favorite for this week was “WAVY, WAVY!!!”…..

You quilt a wavy line until you hit a previously quilted wavy line and then head back in the other direction until you hit yet another wavy line!!! SIMPLE…..AND EFFECTIVE!!!

Now I just have to get it bound, washed, and stored!!

Next Friday I will do a re-cap of the whole project!!

I LIKE these FMQ designs

As you might have guessed, I am still working thru Angela Walters “Filler FMQ Challenge”, and this week I hit a bunch of designs that I LOVE!!!

The first one was so simple but very effective…..

….make a wavy line and add a circle here and there!!!

She also suggested adding figure 8’s instead of just the circle so I will need to try that one!!

The next one was rows of Ribbon Candy……

I LOVE doing ribbon candy, and when you put them in wavy rows like this….oh my!!

I always have to stop and figure out where my first stitches need to head BEFORE I start stitching. I did this video of my “thinking”…..

I apologize for it being blurry, but I think that you can still get the idea of me having to trace it out several times before I start sewing. If I don’t do this step, I will get myself completely messed up….not for the first time!!

The next design was more wavy lines, but this time filled with arcs……

I did have trouble keeping the wavy lines parallel. You can see how I have veered WAY out at the bottom…..

I ended up going back up to the middle of the errant line…..

…..and re-sewing before I added the arcs.

I had a similar problem on the next one. These lines were supposed to be mirror images of each other…..

NOT…..SO…..MUCH!!

Next, I tried drawing guidelines to help me stay straight…..

….but those didn’t do the trick either!!

Finally, I physically drew in the lines…..

They really do change character when you add a “snowflake” design to them……

I am not sure why I had so much trouble with wavy lines this time. It may have made a difference that I was working on an area that had slopping slides and “felt” diagonal. At least, we will say was what happened!!!

Even though I struggled a bit with these particular designs, I DEFINITELY found ones that will go into my FMQ library!!

Come back next week as we finish off this challenge!!!

Even more FMQ

Yesterday I finished the 4th week of Angela Walter’s FMQ Filler challenge.

In the last post, I was expounding on the wonders of free-hand Clamshells….

The first pattern in this quilting session was a squared-off Clamshell…..

This was fun, but a bit boring. But, it got more interesting when I made the bricks in all different shapes and sizes…..

The next design that I tackled was a basketweave pattern that is based on a clamshell. The difference is that you travel up the previous shell and then move to the next one, giving it a woven appearance…..

I did okay with the larger shells but had issues when I tried to make them smaller and make them echo the previous shell. I would DEFINITELY need more practice on this one!!!

Next was a simple straight-lined design with random stars along the way. I used a ruler to help keep the lines straight although I am not sure that it was necessary…..

Last week I had put off this next design because I didn’t think that I could tackle it. It was a simple mixture of designs and I just wasn’t comfortable with it……

OF COURSE, it ended up being my favorite!!!

The final design for this week was a feather meander. The first feather wasn’t great…..

….but I finally remembered what I had learned in the last FMQ challenge and did a much better job on the next feather…..

I enjoyed working this design in a larger area…..

Even though I wasn’t looking forward to this week’s designs, I ended up loving most of them!!

There is one more set of designs left to try and I can’t wait to tackle them!!!

FMQ Fun…..again!!

This week I am working thru the “Favorite Fillers” week in Angela Walters “Filler FMQ Challenge”.

A number of these have appeared in previous challenges so most of it was simply practice rather than trying to learn new designs.

First of all, isn’t this a luscious color of thread…..

It was so much fun to quilt with!!

The first design is the leafy meander. When I used this design previously, I kept getting stuck in corners so I first drew it out on a whiteboard to see if I could remember how to avoid that…..

Stitching the design was easy……

….and I was very happy to end up on the other side of the block (without planning it)…..

Next was the Paisley Meander…..

Again, I have done this enough before to feel okay about it.

A bit into this block, I realized that I was having some tension issues…..

Doesn’t that give you a sinking feeling in your stomach??

I checked the back and realized that I needed to loosen my top tension a bit. That quickly fixed the problem.

I have actually struggled with tension on this project but I think the problem is related to the fabric that I used on the back. Since this was a practice piece, I used a “faux” batik that had been given to me. It looked okay but I don’t think that the quality was quite up-to-scratch!!