Thursday, March 07, 2024

FMQ a Friend's Quilt on Free Motion Mavericks

I have a free motion quilting (FMQ) finish this week. It's my girlfriend's first quilt and I offered to quilt it. It's gorgeous!  

FMQ with Wavy Lines


Sylvie, my friend, took a quilting course last winter. We pinned it in May last year and I finally started doing the stitch-in-the-ditch in August. I was busy with my niece's quilt in the fall but started the FMQ in February. I was about a ⅓ of the way through so to motivate myself to get it done, my March One Monthly Goal (OMG) was finishing the FMQ. It's done was lots of time to spare 😊

FMQ finish 😊

Here are a few quilting process photos. I sent Sylvie these two photos in August.

Stitch-in-the-ditch

I stitched-in-the-ditch around each large square
I took these photos today.

FMQ wavy lines on the width of the quilt

It's amazing how much you can put through the neck of the machine!

I took these photos on top of our king-size bed.

What wonderful texture the wavy lines give!

Another photo of the wavy texture.

I'm so glad that it's finished. I did learn a lot on the way.

What I learned
  • I'm so glad that I've finally finished FMQ Sylvie's quilt. I feel guilty that it took so long but she did say to take my time 😁
  • This FMQ was different than I expected and it took me a while to figure out why.... It's because I usually only quilt a little area at a time. For this one, I quilted it on the width, so a much larger area than I usually do.
  • That brought with it a few difficulties that took me a while to manage. I have this bad habit of doing one or two wonky stitches between the time that I stop and when I start. When I work in a small area, it's not really noticeable, but on the width, it could be noticeable. 
  • I worked on it diligently and got much better. For one thing, I tried to stop in an area where the fabric could hide my wonky start and stop if need be. Finally I just got better about stopping and starting.
  • You know that I'm accuracy challenged, and that goes for the amount of space between the wavy line. I started off with wavy lines that were close to ones that were farther apart. Overall though, it does look ok. If everything but a small area was different, then it would show, but since it's all different widths, it looks consistent!
  • My daughter and I carefully looked at the wavy quilting to see if there was anything off. She did find an area where 4 squares met that needed to be quilted since in that area, the wavy lines were very wide. I added a wavy quilted line the width of the block and it looks better.
Linking parties

Free Motion Mavericks


Last week was a very productive week for many quilters. Thanks to everyone who linked up!

Melva worked on a sampler quilt that she is quilting as you go (QAYG). It's a great way to quilt in small sections, instead of having that whole quilt on your domestic sewing machine. It looks great!

Melva's sampler that she is FMQ with the QAYG technique

Gail has created two quilts from fat quarters that she was gifted. Two very different looking quilts with the same fabric collection! Both quilts were quilted with the Silly Moon’s “Rocket” ruler. You can see the details of the quilting on the close-up.

The Pin Dot Floral collection with a white background

The Pin Dot Floral collection with a black background. Check out
the quilting in the outside border!

Details of the FMQ with Silly Moon’s “Rocket” ruler 
Anne-Marie of Stories from the Sewing Room finished her February OMG (she's also hosting the OMG now). She finished her art quilt - it's really stunning! 

Anne-Marie finished her February OMG - an art quilt!

It's now your turn! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

11 comments:

  1. Oh my, that is a large quilt to wrestle on sewing machine. Thank you for the linky. Hopefully soon I will have more time to make and linkup.

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    1. Thanks Denise. I was a workout but it went well. My girlfriend is thrilled - that's what matters!

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  2. Fabulous job on a very large quilt. I love these organic wavy lines that work, and get the job done. More than that, they help your eyes move across the quilt. No one should ever say take you time to a quilter, but I am sure Sylvie will be very happy with her quilt!

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    1. Thanks Kathleen. Sylvie is thrilled but yes, take your time is probably not what she'll use the next time!

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  3. Bravo pour le quilting de ce grand quilt ! Les lignes ondulées rendent bien, il est très beau.
    Merci pour le partage !

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    1. Merci beaucoup Frédérique. J'aime beaucoup ce quilt et mon amie aussi l'aime beaucoup!

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  4. I rather like wavy line quilting! And it doesn’t matter how long it takes providing you enjoy the process! Sarah quilting by the sea

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  5. Good for you for keeping at it - that is a large quilt!! but so very pretty - and she will love using it!

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    1. Thanks Alycia, I'm very happy that she's thrilled with it!

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  6. The quilting looks great! We are always so much more critical than anyone else would be when we try something new. Congrats on the finish.

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    1. Thanks Kate. Yes, it's hard to not be critical, especially if it's for someone else but my quilting did improve, so that's all part of the process. :-)

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