Thursday, January 28, 2021

Going to Space on Free Motion Mavericks

 I've taken a couple of days of vacation time this week since it doesn't look like we'll be going anywhere exotic or even local for a while. What a treat to sleep in and stay in my PJs for most of the day 😊 This is a laid-back holiday with just a few necessities to do, including some free motion quilting (FMQ) on my Pinwheels & Stars baby quilt and writing this post.

Rocket in the air

Since the worst part of my initial image was the rocket, I wanted to get it right. I started looking at NASA's and the Canadian Space Agency's websites for something interesting and easy to draw. Well, it seems that space travel has come a very long way since the original landing on the moon (which I remember vividly 😊). It turns out that they are planning another trip to the moon in 2024 - to eventually have a base from which to do deep space travel. How amazing is that?! The mission is called Artemis, who is the Greek Goddess of the Moon and the hunt. Love it! If you want to learn more, including how to draw the rocket, see Related links below.

Earth, Moon and Artemis Project

FMQ the Artemis Project

There are several parts to the Artemis project. There is the Space Launch System (SLS) Rocket, as well as the Orion Space Craft, which astronauts will use on missions from the Moon, and then the Gateway which is where the astronauts will live and work. In the image below, you can see my first pass at the moon. You can also see the Orion Space Craft at the top and the Gateway at the bottom. Both have been drawn on tracing paper. I FMQ the outline of all of these and then added the details once the paper was removed.

The outline of the Moon and the space
craft and gateway on tracing paper

Here is a close up of the FMQ Artemis Project.

Close-up of Artemis Project

In the last post, I wasn't sure what to do about the Earth. After finishing the Moon and the Artemis Project, I decided to add a little more definition to the Earth. I just went around the continents outline again in dark green and then on the outside I outlined the oceans in navy. It looks much better now.


Adding more definition to the Earth

I guess Mars and a few of the other planets in our solar system are next. I'll just have to do more research since I remember very little about the other planets. It would be nice to know more and be a somewhat accurate about our own system!😊

What I learned

  • When I FMQ the Moon from the tracing paper, I put too many details and had a hard time removing the tracing paper. After that, I just FMQ the outlines and added the details after taking the paper away. It worked really well.
  • I had a really great time researching the Artemis Project. NASA even has PDFs to learn to draw the various parts of the project. That was very helpful. 
  • My images are not as accurate as they could be and are probably totally out of proportion but then this quilt is for a baby - she can complain about it when she gets older!
Related links

Linking parties

I'll be lining up to many fun linking parties around the web. Let's see what's going on out there! Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, Off the Wall Friday, Patchwork & Quilts, Midweek Makers, Colour & Inspiration Tuesday, Put Your Foot Down, Needle & Thread Thursday, Finished or Not Finished Friday, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?, Peacock Party

I'm late in linking up, so if you're looking for this week's Free Motion Mavericks, please see Muv's post here.

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to Free Motion Mavericks, week 316. Last time we had a good number of link ups. Thanks so much. It's really great to see the creative projects and the lovely quilts and quilting. I'm feeling particularly homey this week and so I'm featuring Sew Yummy's Scrappy Quilt. It made me want to just cuddle up under it 😊 It also made me want to start sewing my scraps together - but I have IOUs that I have to get done before I wonder off on more than just small projects! Hopefully in a few months (a girl can hope!).

See Scrappy Quilts make me Happy - Sew Yummy

It's now your turn!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

8 comments:

  1. Yvonne does some amazing scrappy quilts...she threw me a squirrel last week with one! Turnabout is fair play; I threw her one last year with my Smooches quilt. :-) I like what you did to the Earth and I wish I knew more (or had better retention ha) about our planets and their positions. My grandson was watiching the space walk a few days ago and had to FaceTime me to tell me. He was SO excited, and knew I'd get it, because I'd sent him the CBC article about the 8-year-old who got to talk with Glover himself!

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    1. Hi Sandra, I'm really enjoying learning about the planets. Now I have to figure out which one is next and how to draw it. Thank goodness for the web - I also knew all this a very long time ago but until now, it hasn't been that important :-) Thanks for linking up! Take care.

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  2. J'aime beaucoup cette petite planète ! Les doubles contours rendent très bien.

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    1. Merci beaucoup Frédérique. J'aime beaucoup notre planète et maintenant j'aime aussi le FMQ :-)

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  3. Wow - that quilting - what a great idea to research the vehicles - but that you can quilt them!! awesome!!

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    1. Thanks Alycia, turns out it wasn't that hard - and the info on the NASA website was great. I can see that kids would love to draw these. Take care.

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  4. You and I are a lot of like when it comes to something that sparks our interest, "I have to learn more, read all about it until I reach the end of the internet". This is going to be one spectacular quilt. Hoping to get back into a routine soon so I can start linking up again. Thank you for linking up to Put your foot down.

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    1. Thanks Denise, I just like to be able to know something about what I'm drawing or depicting. Of course the trick is to know when to stop because that rabbit hole called the internet is endless :-) Looking forward to seeing your work linked up! Take care.

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