Welcome to week 398 of Free Motion Mavericks. I hope that you've had a chance to play this week. I did 😊

Dynamic Wildflowers in Stitch Workshop

I've been wanting to free motion quilt (FMQ) the wildflowers in Jo Hill's July workshop on TextileArtist.org's Stitch Club. Since I wasn't up to tackling Version 2.0 this week, I thought that this would be a quick FMQ project - and it was!

The back of my Wildflower Vest

The first step was cutting up shaped for the flowers. I decided to use some bright batik scraps. You essentially cut up large circles for the large flower (red), some elongated triangles (green), cut up some strips (purple) and some small circles (light blue).

Placing the batik fabrics

After placing some Heat & Bond Ultra Hold at the back of the batik, I cut everything up and then placed these on the back of a old denim vest. I actually used the back of the red batik because it was a little less bright!

After ironing these down, I used some regular black cotton thread for the FMQ. I did use a larger needle (a topstitch 100) and it went very well. I mostly followed Jo's sample to piece and quilt the flowers. I wanted to see how it would turn out before I started experimenting.

Fun FMQ with black thread

I really love how the black thread looks against the batiks and the denim. I was thinking of adding either different coloured thread or embroidery but I think that I'll leave the back as is. I can always experiment with the front.

What I learned

Since I had the ultra hold of the Heat and Bond, I thought that I would try it on the denim. That was probably a good idea.
It was great to use some lovely batik scraps for this project.
I might consider using a thicker thread next time - I have some nice stuff, somewhere...
I'm looking forward to FMQ the front of the vest. There is less space since there are pockets, but the long vertical space could be cool!😎
I've also been thinking about other jackets and such that I could use this technique with. That would be a lot of fun!
If you like this style, check out Jo Hill's website (see below). She has really lovely work. She also offers some FMQ courses online that look interesting. She is a great teacher.