Thursday, February 10, 2022

Weather and nature on Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 368 of Free Motion Mavericks. Since the weather is all over the place, I thought that I would tackle some weather images as well as keep heading east on Version 2.0.

FMQ all kinds of weather

In my son's first quilt, my mother had quilted one of the strips of red fabric with rainbows. This was one of the designs that celebrate nature.

As well as rainbows, I wanted to add different types of weather onto that strip. I've got sun, rainbows, snow flakes, clouds and umbrellas. 

Sun and a rainbow on the right side of the quilt


Three umbrellas for rain!


Umbrellas, clouds, snowflakes and a rainbow seen from the back of the quilt.

FMQ nature

As you may recall, the beige strip that runs across the quilt is depicting various aspects of Canada, from the West Coast towards the East. I'm now in the middle of the prairies. I transitioned from the mountains onto a ranch and then the Canadian Badlands (yes, we have them too!)

Leaving the mountains, I added a mountain goat. After that came the ranch, with a fence, bales of hay, cattle in the pastures and a horse on the path.

A ranch and the Badlands


Adding a ranch after the mountains.

If you wonder how I managed to FMQ cattle, a horse, a mountain goat and a deer, this is my secret. From images on my computer screen, I use tracing paper to trace out the animals in the size that I want them. I then FMQ over the tracing paper, following the image. 

FMQ the cattle over the traced image
Adding the deer by stitching over the tracing paper

After the ranch comes the Canadian Badlands located in both Southern Alberta and Saskatchewan. It doesn't really compare to the Badlands of South Dakota, but it's still very special. It's where Alberta's Dinosaur Provincial Park is located.
 
The Canadian Badlands and a deer

What I learned

  • As I get more experience, it's getting a little easier to quilt on such a large (queen size) quilt. I find that my movements are rather jerky, and that's from not having the quilt laid out correctly. There are lots of areas of potential drag!
  • I started doing the strip with the weather because otherwise it will take me years to get this done. I'm looking for other places on the quilt that would be relatively easy to FMQ. I keep referring to the PowerPoint that I made of the original quilting and adding notes on potential designs. After the weather, there will be sports, birds, playing cards, and a few other fairly easy designs to add.
  • I'm thrilled to say that I used the Glide thread on the red - it quilted amazingly! I'm so happy.

Related links

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. Why not check them out...after you've linked up here! Midweek Makers, Put your foot down, Needle & Thread Thursday, Off The Wall Friday, Finished or Not Finished Friday, Peacock Party, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 minutes to stitch 2022

Free Motion Mavericks

It was a real party last time - thanks to everyone who linked up, whether they were doing FMQ or not! We're happy to have you all here.

Denise at For the Love of Geese created this amazing quilt for a veteran for Quilts of Valor. Go visit if you didn't see it!

Denise's very patriotic quilt

It's now your turn!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

13 comments:

  1. FMQ is for sure a skill that requires practice and you do it well. The couple times I have thread painted I find my muscles jerking on their own, guess they just cant wrap their head around the concept. I love the progress you are making and the creativity you are expressing on his quilt, it's very inspiring. Doesn't the tracing paper leave a lot little pieces behind when you remove it? Thank you for the linkup and thank you so much for featuring my quilt. I have two today, I feel so accomplished.

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    1. Thanks Denise. I'm really enjoying it but sometimes struggle to come up with good ideas that I can actually quilt! Yes, there are many little bits of paper but generally it comes out nicely. I'm not too worried because the quilt will need a wash once I'm done, and that will take care of anything that's still stuck. Have a great weekend and thanks so much for linking up!

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  2. I love Glide thread, too!!! Your FMQ details are so cute! Clever way to master the details--draw/trace it out and stitch over the lines on paper!

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    1. Thanks Nancy. I'm really impressed with Glide thread - the tension is perfect...and FMQ is difficult enough on a big quilt without worrying about tension! I'm so glad that I figured out how to trace and FMQ from it since I can follow lines but drawing these would require way too much practice!
      Thanks so much for linking up to Free Motion Mavericks. I love seeing what you've been quilting. Have a great weekend.

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  3. Ce fil a l'air bien joli et surtout facile à coudre. Bravo pour les animaux, et les symboles de météo, très réussis!

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    1. Merci bien Frédérique. Oui, le fil est vraiment joli. Il scintille un peu donc ça ajoute un peu au quilting. Je suis vraiment contente de ne pas avoir a me battre avec mon fil!

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  4. This is a really interesting piece of quilting. Your tracing paper trick for the animals is a brilliant idea :)

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    1. Thanks Janine, it's been very useful to quilt over the tracing paper. It means that I can FMQ images that I can trace but not draw! Take care.

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  5. This is so fun to see what all you are adding! Great secrets!

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  6. You've quilted some wonderful stuff on your son's quilt. Happy stitching this week.

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  7. Hello Andrée, What a day! Don't mention the weather... Linky is up now!
    The ranch quilting is beautiful! Your son is going to love his quilt.
    Love, Muv

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    1. Hi Muv, I'm glad that it all turned out well for you. At least the tree didn't fall on something important...like your house!

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