Learning QAL - September Goal Setting

Welcome to the Learning Quilt-A-Long (QAL)

Have you thought about your learning goal for September yet? Since September is traditionally the time for returning to school, it's a good time to consider what you'd like to learn this month.

Since I have a deadline in early October (see you at the Art with Fabric Blog Hop!),  I am going to keep this month's learning simple.

September Learning Goal: To learn a few more free motion quilting (FMQ) patterns.

There are so many great resources available - on the internet, in books, magazines, courses, etc. What I will be doing this month is use a few of these to learn and practice my FMQ. Since I have to keep this post interesting with images, here is some of the FMQ that I've done so far.

Race Car design from Lori Kennedy

Re-quilting a batik runner

Practicing my feathers

Using Angela Walter's Dot-to-Dot technique

Here are a few of the resources that I will be using (the links are in the Related Links below)

• I want to learn a few of Muv's designs such as the Oak Leaf, the Rudbeckia, and the Berries and Leaves.
• Craftsy: I have a ridiculous amount of free motion courses. I have watched and learned from many of them but it's time to get serious about learning and practicing! 
• Of course I have to mention some of the renown FMQ teachers such as Leah Day, Angela Walters and Lori Kennedy. I have many books, web links and Craftsy courses by these ladies.  
• There are a few quilters that I've discovered recently such as Esther with her 365 Day Doodle challenge and Yanicka's Three Feathers pattern. 

Re-quilting a door hanging

As the month progresses, I will share with you show off my FMQ and tell you what I learned using the various resources.

I really hope that you'll join me on my journey this month. You can follow along and share some of your favourite FMQ learning resources or you can link-up your own learning project below!

One Monthly Goal (OMG) - Updated September 3, 2017

Black & white fabrics for my OMG

When I wrote this post all of these projects were rather overwhelming. Now that I've had a couple of days to start and think things through, I've decided that my OMG for September will be to create a little wall hanging in black and white for my niece. She asked for this at Christmas but I was stuck - I just had no inspiration (more about that when I finish this project). I will be combining the FMQ for this month with the OMG to create that wall hanging that will showcase some of the FMQ I've practiced and learned.

What I learned

Design It, Quilt It: Free-Form Techniques
with Cindy Needham

• It was so tough coming up with something that would be fun to learn but that could be done in smaller chunks of time and not too large and overwhelming. I really want this Learning QAL to be about the fun of learning and not the stress. I will be consciously trying to live that principle.
• Since it was tough to decide, I now have a list of the many, many things that I want to learn in the next months. It was really good to take a look at all of the resources that I have access to. There is so much out there!
• As I was adding the resources to my list, I wanted to make sure that I promote not only the obvious resources, but also the up-and-coming and not so famous ones. There are so many talented people out there who are so generous about sharing what they learn. It's so much fun to find them.
• It's often a challenge to find visuals for a blog post where I haven't really done anything yet! Oh well, I guess that's when re-using photos comes in handy :-)

Related Links

• Free Motion Quilting Design Videos - by Muv of Lizzie Lenard Vintage Sewing
• Craftsy
• Leah Day of the Free Motion Quilting Project
• Angela Walters of Quilting is my Therapy
• Lori Kennedy at The Inbox Jaunt
• 365 Day Doodle challenge by Esther at ipatchandquilt
• Yanicka's Three Feathers FMQ pattern at Finding Myself as an artist
• Art with Fabric Blog Hop

Links to posts of the images

Practice Makes Better

• Race car design by Lori Kennedy: Back on Track - August 20, 2016
• Re-quilting a batik runner: Projects Update - December 2, 2014
• Practicing my feathers: Too much quilting? - September 24, 2015
• Using Angela Walter's Dot-to-Dot technique: Colourful Learning Project - May 21, 2014
• Re-quilting a door hanging - September 12, 2014
• Design It, Quilt It: Free-Form Techniques with Cindy Needham:  Free Motion Quilting Madness - March 16, 2015
• Practice Makes Better, December 15, 2015

Linking Parties: I will be linking to many link-up parties. Feel free to follow along. Free Motion Mavericks, Off the Wall Friday, Finished or Not Friday, Can I get a Whoop Whoop?, Oh Scrap!, One Monthly Goal Setting, MOP Monday, Main Crush Monday, Monday Making, Linky Tuesday, Design Wall Monday, Midweek Maker, Let's Bee Social,

Prizes
The August prize for participation goes to Donna of quiltpaintcreate. Thanks so much for participating! I will be in touch with you about sending you Yanicka's Cougar pattern featuring her Fractured image technique.

The September prize for participating in both the September Goal Setting and Sum Up link-ups will be a $20 (US) gift certificate for a quilting book so that you can keep on learning! For those who don't want to pay shipping, it can be a e-book (they are my favourites!) I am sorting out the details and will announce the publisher in the September Sum Up post.

An InLinkz Link-up