Welcome to Free Motion Mavericks, week 298. We are getting ready for the 300^th Week Linking Party on October 1^st. It's going to be a virtual trans-Atlantic party to remember. You can read all about it below!

FMQ a sparkling star

This is the third star that was free motion quilted (FMQ) on the Pinwheels and Stars Baby Quilt. I love how it turned out!

Lots of sparkling diamonds in this star block

This design is based on Star Struck, a post that I found on the Seams French blog (see Related links below). Here is what the block design looked like when I originally drew it. I knew that I would have a difficult time with the star in the middle, so I simplified it, although not really on purpose.

When I drew the diamonds from each star point, it turned out that two of them would meet. That meant that there wasn't any space for all of those points in the middle star - which would have been a mess anyway.

New design

Original plan

There is still a star in the middle, but it was much simpler to quilt. If you could click on the image of the newer design, you may be able to see some Frixion pen marks - it was a mess, but it did work. (You'll have to take my word for it since I can't seem to make that image clickable.)

It's easier to see the design from the back

If I hadn't changed the thread colour in the star, it could have been a continuous design. I ended up travelling using the middle star since I thought that it would be fine if it showed up more.

What's on this week

I'm going on a short holiday so I'm bringing a lot of my hand stitching with me. I've started my Hello Fall piece. I'll be appliquéing and FMQ it this weekend. I'm presenting Wednesday, September 23^rd .

What I learned

Design plans, like any other plans, can keep evolving. I'm really glad that this one got simpler. I was much more confidant about making it.
I did quite a bit of marking and it paid off.
I did start on Monday, just as I said that I should in my last post! It's mostly because I'm going away for a short visit and will be travelling Wednesday evening...but still, I'm following my own advice😊
This is a really pretty design and I'm glad that it worked out.

Related links

Sparkling diamonds

Star Struck at Seams French
FMQ Stars related posts

Seeing stars with Free Motion Mavericks, September 03, 2020
FMQ the first star on Free Motion Mavericks, August 6, 2020
Planning to Quilt Stars on Free Motion Mavericks, July 23, 2020

Linking parties

I'll be linking up this post to many fun quilting linking parties. If you get a chance, check them out, after you've linked up to Free Motion Mavericks below! Colour & Inspiration Tuesday, Long arm Learning, To-Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, For The Love Of Geese, Needle & Thread Thursday, Finished or Not Finished Friday, Friday Foto Fun, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop , Peacock Party, Patchwork & Quilts, Monday Making, Let's Make Baby Quilts,

Free Motion Mavericks

Thank you to everyone who linked up last time. There are many wonderful quilters out there and we are glad that you are joining us. Don't ever think that your quilting is not good enough! We were all beginners at one time and slowly got better with practice. We are here to support and encourage you, no matter what your perceived level of FMQ.

This week I want to highlight two very different quilts. Kathleen McMusing finished a UFO that she had started during a workshop in 2017. This was a difficult quilt to get back into but Kathleen persevered and got it done! If you didn't read her post about Backshore, here's the link.

Backshore by Kathleen McMusing

The other quilt is Purple Palace, an improv adventure quilt by Joy, of the Joyful Quilter. She shared her quilting process with us. It's a really lovely quilt and you can see it here!

An improv quilt by the Joyful Quilter

Remember to come back and celebrate with Muv and I on October 1^st. You can start thinking about which Free Motion Quilting posts you would like to link up (any post, up to three of them, recent or past) with Andrée (me!) and which posts about absolutely any subject (again, up to three of them, recent or past) with Muv.

Now it's your turn!

13 comments:

Alycia~Quiltygirl17 September 2020 at 09:47
That sparkling star is a really cool design and gives the star alot of shine power!!!
Rebecca Grace17 September 2020 at 22:03
That star looks amazing, Andree! I'm so glad you showed us the evolution of the design and explained why you altered it. I think a lot of new quilters don't realize that it's totally normal to come up with a design that isn't workable every now and again, so it's great to lead by example and how and why you altered the design to get that sparkling star look you wanted without driving yourself batty in the quilting! Thanks for linking up with Long Arm Learning. I just took a charity quilt off the frame that I quilted with a new panto today, but haven't had a chance to write anything up about that (and not sure it's all that interesting), so I think I'm going to dig out an older post to link up this week instead. I hope you don't mind!
Home Sewn By Us18 September 2020 at 14:42
Hi Andree! I love how you quilted this star. It is so much easier to see on the reverse side and it looks like you were able to do the whole design in a continuous line. Thanks so much for linking up this week. ~smile~ Roseanne
Quiltpiecer19 September 2020 at 22:05
Love the quilting on the star ... beautiful!
Dione Gardner-Stephen21 September 2020 at 03:27
Great design, and always very helpful to see how you arrived at it. Thanks. :) And thanks for sharing at Clever Chameleon.
Susan22 September 2020 at 18:12
Good looking quilting design!
For the love of geese23 September 2020 at 09:47
Oh yes, that quilting is great for the star. I hope you have a nice holiday and get plenty of rest. Sure you'll be back home by the time you read this though. Thank you for linking up to Put your foot down.
Kathleen24 September 2020 at 10:30
Thank you so much for the link up party and the feature! Always fun to link and then to get featured is an honor!
Miaismine27 September 2020 at 13:55
Your quilting came out lovely! I'm glad you showed the white one...I'm really liking how quilting shows up on the back even more when I use a solid backing. Thank you for sharing!