2012 Free Motion Quilting Challenge - February

For the February FMQ Challenge, Diane Gaudynski gave a wonderfully long and detailed tutorial on free-motion feather plumes. I love quilted feathers, but they can be a bit challenging. The only feathers I've attempted so far have been from a marked design. Free-motion feathers? Yikes! How could we be given something so challenging in just the second month?

Well, it was a really good tutorial and I practiced drawing feathers on a white board for quite some time. At first, they didn't even resemble feathers, but a few minutes here and half an hour there and by the end of the month my drawn feathers didn't look half bad. But drawing on a white board and doing them on the machine are different. I couldn't put it off any longer. Here are my first attempts:

free-motion feathered plume

 Oh boy, was I surprised! I never would have dreamed that I could quilt a free-motion feather plume. Okay, they're not perfect and I definitely need more practice. But you know? I am really happy with my first attempts. I would not have tried this if it hadn't been for the FMQ Challenge. Thanks SewCalGal!

SBS BOW - Handy Andy

This is another block that is paper-pieced. I'm still getting the hang of paper piecing. I have no problem PPing the individual units, but when it comes time to assemble those units it can be a bit of a challenge for me. One thing I really like about working on Sylvia's Bridal Sampler are all the different techniques I get to try out. By the time I finish all the blocks I won't be a master quilter like Sylvia, but I'll have certainly learned a lot.

SBS BOW - Cats and Mice

This is a block that I will most likely do over. I'll live with it up on the design wall and see how I feel in a couple of weeks, but there are just too many things wrong with it. I don't care when my points aren't perfect, but that QST in the lower right is just too far off. And, see the pink triangles? They form a star which is completely lost because the fabric is too close in value to the tan print. I like to call blocks like these my "learning blocks."

SBS - King David's Crown

Because these block are only 6 inches square, sometimes my fabric choices aren't the best. I love that green paisley fabric but it's probably too large a print to go in this block. And, the motif in the dark blue fabric didn't come out in any of the triangles. I thought about redoing the block, but decided that being a sampler and being scrappy, it was okay to leave it as is. Plus, I'm feeling a little lazy.

SBS BOW - Courthouse Steps

I was quilting all last week and most of this week so I thought I'd pick a simple paper-pieced block. I got all my supplies out and realized that it has been so long since I've paper-pieced that I forgot how to start! After a quick refresher I had this done in no time:

My January UFO finish

At the beginning of January I decided I'd follow along with Judy Laquidara's 2012 UFO Challenge. The way this challenge works is you make a list of 12 UFOs that you'd like to complete in 2012. Each month Judy will pick a number and that is the project that you will finish. Because I know that I will not have time to completely finish 12 UFOs, some of the items on my list are just to assemble the blocks into a top, or just to add the borders. I will finish some things and make progress on others. Maybe those "others" will end up being finishes, or maybe they'll be on next year's UFO list. Either way, I'll have made progress.  I'll add my UFO list to my sidebar once I figure out how.

For January, Judy chose the number 5. This was a from a Saturday Sampler program at a local quilt shop in Albuquerque from 2008. We moved to Arlington (the first time) that summer. I have to say that as the year progressed I wasn't liking this quilt so much, but I hung in there and was able to complete the blocks and assemble the top after we moved back to Albuquerque in the summer of 2009.

I needed to get backing fabric and figure out how I wanted to quilt it. That's the hardest part for me - the quilting. Because I didn't want to mark the quilt and because I'm wanting to practice free motion designs I decided to quilt it in swirls. I like how it came out. The swirls added a nice texture and having used black thread, my not-so-swirly swirls don't look too bad. Here it is quilted and bound:

2012 Free-Motion Quilt Challenge - January

I like to say that I'm a quilter. But really, I make a lot of quilt tops. And then they sit. Sometimes for a very long time. Getting those quilt tops actually quilted is a real challenge for me. So, when I saw that SewCalGal was going to host the 2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge, I knew I had to follow along.

The way it works is that SewCalGal has lined up some FMQ experts. Each month one of them will present a tutorial with tips for the participants to practice. Participants who pledge to complete the challenge can submit a picture and be eligible for that month's prizes. I wasn't going to take the pledge, just follow along on my own. But there are prizes! How fun is that? 

January FMQ leaves

The tutorial for January was by Frances Moore. She showed how to do some free motion leaves. After practicing on a white board for two weeks I bit the bullet and tried them out on a practice quilt sandwich. You know what? They don't look half bad! Are they perfect? No. I know I still need to practice my spacing and my stitch length consistency, but if this had been done on a printed fabric with matching thread it would have looked just fine. Most of all, this has given me a much needed boost in my confidence level. 

I'm looking forward to more tutorials, more practice and most importantly, finishing some quilts!

(I know I still need to do some work on the look of my blog, but I wanted to get this submitted before the deadline.)

SBS BOW - 54-40 or Fight

I've been quilting all week so I had to shift my machine over to piecing to get this block done, L-3 54-40 or Fight:

SBS BOW - Gentleman's Fancy

The hardest part is deciding which block to do next. For this week I chose K-6 Gentleman's Fancy:

SBS BOW - Grace's Friendship

Here's my SBS block for this week, G-6 Grace's Friendship: