Wednesday, May 08, 2019

FMQ garden and pond

Welcome to the Free Motion Mavericks link-up (Week 228).

FMQ garden and pond

You may have been watching this free motion quilted (FMQ) practice piece progress in the last couple of months.
Latest of the FMQ garden and pond
It started off as a quick FMQ drawing in grey thread.
FMQ garden and pond in grey thread

Adding colour to the FMQ garden and pond
Since this "practice piece" has so much potential, I've continued adding to it. I made a list of things that could be added:
Last night's results
  • more flowers ✔
  • shrub
  • grass ✔
  • butterfly
  • bird
  • rocks ✔
  • frog
  • turtle ✔
  • fish
  • cattails
  • other pond vegetation ✔
Although the list is long, realistically it is limited by my drawing skills. I may be able to eventually draw something with practice, but at this point, I only had one more evening to finish this post!

Last night I added the Rudbeckia flowers based on Muv's great tutorial (the link is in Related links). I also added grass in front of the pond and the grey outline for a rock and more water.

Tonight I added some water, more vegetation in front of the pond, a rock with a turtle sunning herself and a few more plants in the garden. I also added some lines with a Frixion pen in order to square it so that I know how far I need to FMQ.
The pond now has a turtle sunning herself on a rock

There is more vegetation in front of the pond

There is more grass and flowers in the garden
What I learned
  • Last night I Googled "how to draw..." many of the things on my list above. I wasn't in a good learning space so my attempts to draw butterflies and fish were not successful. I know that I can do this, eventually and these don't have to be in the piece yet.
  • I didn't add a frog (one of my favourite animals) in this piece but the turtle got in without too much effort. 
  • I was worried that the Rudbeckia would dominate but they look fine in the photo of the whole piece.
  • I really am doing this backwards because the background should have been done first....that's what happens when you don't plan...but it's a wonderful use of my ability to adapt!
  • I really debated about using the grey thread to outline new features since I know that I'm now using colour, and I did outline with grey last night in order to be consistent. However tonight I just skipped it. I'm not sure that it makes a huge difference.
  • I'm really not sure what I want to add in the background. What do you think - would a couple of butterflies and/or a bird be enough, or should I add a shrub and plants to make it denser? I would love your opinion if you want to share it😊
Related links
Linking parties
I will be linking up to many fun linking parties. Join me to see what else is going around Quilting Blog Land and don't forget to link up to Free Motion Mavericks below! Design Wall Monday, Moving It Forward, What I Made Monday, Tuesday Colour Linky Party, Midweek Maker, Let's Bee Social, Needle & Thread Thursday, Off the Wall Friday, Finished or Not Friday, Friday Foto Fun, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?, Monday Making,

Free Motion Mavericks
I am so thrilled with your continued support of this link-up. Two weeks ago we had TEN link-ups. Yeah!!!!! I really hope that this is the beginning of a trend. The emphasis may be on FMQ but we had a few link ups with hand quilting and others made on longarm machines. If you're wondering about the difference between free motion quilting and longarm quilting, check out Leah Day's post: Quilting on a Home Machine Versus Longarm Machine. I'm happy to have all quilters join us!

The hardest part of co-hosting this blog is choosing just one project to highlight! You are all amazing quilters! Here is Vasudha of Storied Quilts who designed and free motion quilted Diamond Showers on her longarm. Wow! Here's the link to her post, in case you haven't seen it yet.
Diamond Showers


You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!
Click here to enter

14 comments:

  1. I have no free motion but I am in the middle of needle turn applique, hand quilting and crocheting on my blog - I love your grass and flowers on your free motion piece - very artistic!!

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    1. Thanks Karen. I must say that I would rather do almost anything other than needle turn appliqué but I do miss hand quilting. I still have a couple of pieces that aren't finished!

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  2. I've been watching your progress and loving it. I've also added you to my list of linky parties. In the next couple of weeks I am planning my own so I hope you will join me. I'm new to fmq and will be sharing a recent finish in July.

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    1. That sounds great. We really do have to encourage each other! I'm glad that I have a couple of weeks before hosting again because I have no idea how to finish my little experiment. I'm looking forward to seeing your finish.

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  3. I don't have any free motion to link, but really enjoyed seeing your free motion work. As to the background, I'd consider butterflies, a dragonfly (or two) and maybe some wispy clouds -- not necessarily all of them. Just suggestions.

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    1. Thank you so much Wendy. I think that those are great suggestions since I don't want to over do it!

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  4. Your free motion is a real artwork. It looks great. You are a very skilful machine embroiderer :)

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    1. Hi Janine. Thanks so much! I've so enjoyed working on this :-)

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  5. Incredible! I wonder if you want to FMQ and then paint. I think that would be beautiful.

    -Soma

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    1. Hi Soma, you certainly can. I've done a little bit but I'm really not a painter. You can also paint before and then FMQ over and around it. That's probably what I would do, just because I would hate to mess up the quilting!

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  6. This is coming along so nicely. I love watching it build up.

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    1. Thanks Dione, it's been a lot of fun. I really hope to finish it for the next link-up.

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  7. Your little pond has come together nicely, and I like that you made a list of what to include

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    1. Thanks Susan. I often start of project by writing down everything that I could do with it. I never know where that can take me!

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Hi! I would love to hear from you and I will try to answer you. Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a message. :-)