Welcome to Week 400 on Free Motion Mavericks! I'm back to free motion quilting (FMQ) on my son's Version 2.0 quilt. It's getting cool. I'm sure that he'll want to snuggle into it soon😊
Stitching up wildflowers
Wildflowers have always been one of my favourite things. When I walk in the woods, it can be dangerous because I'm always looking at the ground at the flowers. I've been practicing drawing wildflowers for the last few days.
This first one is the easiest to draw, a cat-tail or bulrush. The FMQ is done on the blue, but it shows up so well on the back, which should be burgundy and not pink.
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| Bulrush, from the back |
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| Cat-tail on the front of the quilt |
The next one is also fairly easy to draw, a lily-of-the-valley. I have lots of these in my garden. They are gorgeous.
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| Lily-of-the-valley (back) |
Next comes the humble clover, one of my favourite flowers 😊
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| Clover (back) |
Another favourite is the black-eyed Susan. I've had some practice FMQ this one because it's pretty much the same shape as a rudbeckia. If you want to learn to FMQ this, you can find the link to Muv's FMQ video in Related links below.
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| Black-eyed Susan (back) |
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| Black-eyed Susan flower |
The next two are asters and lupin
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| Aster (back) |
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| Lupin (back) |
I finished up the wildflowers with some chives. I love all flowers from the Allium family!
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| Chives (back) |
To practice drawing the flowers, I found a book on Wildflowers that I bought over 40 years ago at the Highway Book Shop in Cobalt, Ontario. They used to publish many books about Northern Ontario. I've included the link to this book in Related links. It's still available through quite rare - a real treasure.
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| Wildflowers of the North - a favourite book |
A Strip of triangles and squares
I quilted one of the tan strips with meandering triangles and squares. It was nice to be able to quilt so quickly!
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| Meandering triangles and squares |
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| Meandering triangles and squares next to the wildflowers |
What I learned
- Most of my favourite wildflowers were much too complicated to draw. I did try, but it wasn't going to happen for this quilt. Maybe one day....
- I thought that I had lost the Wildflowers of the North book because I hadn't seen it in years. Turns out it was in a bookshelf that mostly contains my husband's books. It's now going to reside in my studio!
- It's too bad that the quilting doesn't show up very well in pictures of the front of the quilt. There is little sun this week so no possibility of going outdoors for pictures.
- It was great to FMQ the meandering triangles and squares. I will probably do at least one more strip with an easy quilting motif.
- In 5 weeks, I hope to spend a lot of time FMQ this baby and finishing it up.
- My September One Monthly Goal (OMG) was to finish FMQ 2 areas of Version 2.0, so that's done!
- To keep myself motivated, I've put the quilt and the threads at my sewing machine. I hope to take advantage of the fact that it's there and ready to go....we'll see how that works!
Related links
- Free Motion Quilting Design Videos, with Muv - check out the Rudbeckia
- Wildflowers of the North by Ruby Gibbins Bryan and and illustrated by Muriel Newton-White
Linking parties
I'll be linking up to the Finish Link-up of September's One Monthly Goal (OMG) as well as many other fun linking parties. Let's check out what's going on out there! Monday Making, Midweek Makers, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put your foot down, Peacock Party, Off The Wall Friday, Finished or Not Finished Friday, Design Wall Monday, Patchwork & Quilts,
Free Motion Mavericks
We have to lovely finishes from last time. Melva made Hanna's First Year quilt and Denise made a lovely mug rug for her sister.
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| Melva's Hanna's First Year quilt |
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| Denise's sewing machine mug rug |
Love seeing all those wildflower quilting designs! I also love doing the squares and triangles, you can really get into a groove with those.
ReplyDeleteHi Kathleen, I love being in that FMQ groove. It's harder to do that with those wildflowers...it probably doesn't help that I only quilt them once. I may have to make something that I can quilt a whole bunch of them on - that would create a lovely groove!
DeleteToutes tes fleurs sont très réussies, bravo ! Tu es une experte en botanique ;)
ReplyDeleteMerci beaucoup Frédérique. J'ai bien aimé les faire!
DeleteVery Cool Wildflowers!!! and week 400 - Congrats!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Alycia. I think that life is too busy for Muv and I to be making a celebration of this anniversary but hopefully the next one will find us having a party!
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