July~~ Free Motion Quilt Challenge & Sewing Projects

 Free Motion Quilt Challenge

This one was hard for me. I wasn't able to get my lines straight and my curly weren't so great either. More practice needed.

Baby quilt.

Front

Back

Another practice piece.

Here are some post cards I made this month.

Lottery block for TBLOVERS2

Pillowcase dress this is the first on I have ever made. 

Apron for a swap.

And a UFO finish...

Hand quilting in the white areas.

front

back

June 2012 FMQ Challenge

Wow! this has been so much fun!

 I want to say first of all ***THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!!!!*** SewCalGal for this challenge, Cindy Needham for the wonderful tutorial, each one of the previous teachers and fellow challengees all of you have encouraged and help me improve my quilting and caused me to stretch beyond my limited ability to machine quilt.

Click here to find out more about SewCalGal Free Motion Quilt Challenge

And here for June's challenge by Cindy

I began my challenge by doing the doodles 3 of them.

Next I began doodling on fabric. First I stitched my curvy line to break the piece up into sections.

Then I stiched in one section at a time. Or as Cindy says "Divide and Conquer"

Finished front of my 1st fabric doodle

Finished back of my 1st fabric doodle

I was able to complete my finial piece for the challenge today And I am very happy with it. 

Front I did the quilting on this side.

And this is the back side. The back is my favorite.

Again Thank you Cindy for your tutorial this month.

Humble yourselves therefore

under the mighty hand of God,

that he may exalt you in due time:

Casting all your care upon him;

 for he careth for you.

I Peter 5:6,7

May Free Motion Quilt Challenge

The teacher this month was Leah Day. I have been learning her machine quilting  this year and love her variety and talent. Leah' s designs

So here are my challenge pieces. Again I need more practice. Mostly my meandering is not smooth enough. I like the rail tracks the best though.

Thank you SewCalGal and Leah Day!

April FMQ Challenge

Sew Cal Gal is having a free motion quilt challenge this year. Each month she has a guest teacher. This month it is Don Linn. The challenge can be found at

http://www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com/2012/04/april-2012-fmq-challenge-tutorial-by.html

Thank you Don for a great video tutorial.

So I began my challenge by choosing a quilt design and enlarging the design.

Next I traced the design onto my tulle with a Sharpie.

Then I traced the tulle design onto my quilt sample with water erase pen.

     

Next I stitched the quilting, it was very difficult for me to quilt on the lines I had to sew slow and make lots of stops. It was a fun technique though and I plan to use it more. One major thing I wish I had done different was used a solid color thread with higher contrast to my fabric.

Front

Back it came it very good.

This picture is after I soaked the mini sample and partial dried it. It is being blocked.

On another note: I am participating in a pay it forward. I have 3 positions open if you might be interested check out the rules. Click on the picture.

And another note: I am coming up on 5000 views very soon and my birthday is April 30th. To celebrate I am going to have a giveaway. So be watching for futher details.

Tina

FMQ Challenge and WIP'D

http://sewcalgal.blogspot.com/2012/03/march-2012-fmq-challenge-tutorial-by.html


I have really procrastinated on the challenge this month. I actually started the first week and have practised a little here and there. But not anything I wanted to show.
Now here are the shows... The gold or yellow quilting is for this month.

Loops, Loops and stars

Loop and Hearts, Swirls



Flowers, clover and feathers

WIP'D and finial for March's FMQ

Quilted in loops and hearts

Recycled crocheted rose bloom

Back of purse

Inside of purse

Free Motion Quilting Challenge February

Feathers

I love quilted feather plumes! Just not mine

These are ones I tried last year. They were horriable. I will not machine quilt feathers again, they will be hand quilted only.

Then 2012 came along and I found this wonderful Free Motion Quilt challenge at SewCalGal.

http://sewcalgal.blogspot.com/p/free-motion-quilt-challenge.html

I want to improve my machine quilting a lot, I have hand quilted for almost 40 years and I love to hand quilt and I love the look, but I only have so much time and hand quilting takes a long time. Machine quiltng is so much faster but mine is barely passable . So January's challenge was heart shaped leaves, they were fun to do and practice. But February's is Feathers. I don't know I may have to quit. No! I must try. So I read through Diane Gaudynski's Tutorial. Still doubtful I printed out the tutorial and read it again. OK maybe I can do it. So I prepared my practice sample... drew a  spine, that I was to follow, prepared my sewing machine, thread a lightweight rayon embroidery thread, size 70 needle, feed dogs down and darning foot.

Ready Set Go

I took my time. stopping after a couple of feathers (teardrops) looked and repositioned. sewed slow or medium speed. Tried to follow the directions. When I finished. I was happy. They aren't perfect and I still need lots of practice but my practice is pretty.

My next practice is a postcard and I think it is beautiful and I hope its reciepent does too!

Then after reading some of the other peoples posts on their practices I realized that I had not had any real tension or thread difficulties. So I did some pratices with heavier cotton (cream) thread and played with the tension and the I tried a heavy twisted (green) rayon thread and adjusted tension some more. Then I finished up with the embroidery rayon so I could end on a happy note. Thread really does matter.

Front

Back

I now look forward to making feathers on some quilts. But for now I'll practice.

Free Motion Quilt Challenge -Jan

I am participating in SewCalGal Free Motion Challenge


Well I'm finding out it is a lot harder to free motion quilt by moving the fabric instead of moving my machine. I'm doing this quilting on my Janome 9700. I practiced on paper 1st and I kept on blocking myself in. Finially I decided to just go ahead and try on the machine.

This was my 1st try. I need lots more practice.

Overall, I think this one is better, but still need lots of practice.

For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept:

line upon line, line upon line;

here a little, and there a little:

Isaiah 28:10