Quilting & Learning - What a Combo!: FM Challenge Quilt Along

Showing posts with label FM Challenge Quilt Along. Show all posts

Thursday, May 17, 2018

Many projects

I have so many projects on the go that it's time to post an update on a few. (oops, sorry for clicking on Publish a little too early!)

Free Motion Quilting Challenge Quilt Along

This FMQ Challenge is officially over, but I realized that I haven't posted my last three blocks. The challenge may be over, but if you're interested, Angela Walter's videos are still available on YouTube, so check them out! (see Related Links)

This block is a combination of the techniques from weeks 2 and 3. I'm not really a fan of the plain meandering but I did want to include it in here so that I could say that I did most of Angela's FMQ designs.

Week 2 & 3 - meandering, echoing and continuous curves

Week 9 is the wishbone. There are a couple of variations, including making it between wavy lines. I had never done the wishbone until recently. It's a great little design that can fit pretty much anywhere. I find it elegant.

It took me a while to practice it using a pen until I realised that it's putting together a cursive "l" and "j". Remember that if you have problems with this one :-)

Week 9 - Wishbones and wavy lines

I made an extra block, so I put together most of the designs from the class. The centre is a dot-to-dot, which I didn't make a whole block of since I've been doing this technique for many years now. I love the dot-to-dot technique although if I really want to FMQ it well, I will often take the time to draw some of it on the fabric. It just depends how accurate I want it to look.

Sampler of most of the techniques in the FMQ Challenge

Art with Fabric Blog Hop

Last weekend I spent most of my time working on my Art with Fabric piece, "Morning has broken". I was on a real high - it's one of the loveliest pieces I've ever done. I got most of it done so that I could take an official photo for Alida's website. But after that high, I've come crashing down and have barely touched it since.

I don't want to completely spoil the surprise, so I'm just going to show you the image from my last post. The big reveal is Monday :-)

The FMQ and piecing is about 90% completed. I didn't have the correct shade of green (my goodness but there are tons of greens!!!) so I had to buy more. That's been done, so now I just have to actually do it.

The next step is to finish the quilt. I will probably add a facing to it since I left a lot of space around the edges to do this. Then I'll be able to embellish it, even after the facing has been added.

I hope you'll join me on Monday for my post. I took a lot of pictures and learned a lot. I'm looking forward to sharing this.

Comfort Quilt QAL

I now have two pieced cuddle quilts sandwiched and ready to FMQ. I just have to trim them a little because I have having to cut up my FMQ. These only have to be 22" x 22".

It's my OMG to finish these two by the end of the month. I think that I'll manage that, especially since the Art with Fabric blog hop will be over soon! Besides, I have some more flannel fabric that I want to play with :-)

Kingfisher Stitch Along

I am thrilled to share with you this next great stitch along. It combines some of my favourite things.... English Paper Piecing (EPP) and quilting. The quilt is made of diamonds with EPP flowers appliqued to them. Isn't this image beautiful?

It starts in June, so check out the link below.

What I learned

For my last block, I ran out of my lovely backing fabric, so the front and back are the same. That seemed to be fine until I noticed that some of the stitches on what I thought was the top, were not variegated. You guessed it - I had flipped the block between designs. Not a big deal, but definitely something to think about or watch for.
I'm really happy that I took the time to follow this quilt along. I learned a couple of very cool FMQ designs that I have already incorporated into my repertoire :-) My favourites are the feather and leaf meanders.
I'm very proud of myself. Even if I worked extremely hard on my Art with Fabric piece last week, I didn't panic about not having it completed for the photo. I'm even not panicking about getting it finished for Monday since I can always crop the picture and / or finish it after since it's all about pretty pictures and it won't be seen in person, probably for another year :-)
I may be a little more tired than I thought....I was very surprised this morning to receive in my email, my blog post! It would seem that I clicked Publish instead of Save. Oh well, at least I get to sleep in tomorrow - in Canada it's the Victoria Day long weekend!

Thursday, May 03, 2018

May updates and plans

The beginning of a brand new month. I'm not sure where April went, but it's now history😊 (lame but true!) Here are the updates and plans for this new month.

Comfort Quilt QAL

I finished the quilt top of my first Comfort cuddle quilt. I added a two inch border but that will have to be cut down so that the quilt ends up being 22" x 22". I'm hoping to practice some cool FMQ designs.

Cuddle quilt ready to FMQ

My One Monthly Goal for May (OMG) is to finish at least two of the cuddle quilts. I'm hoping for more, but we'll see!

FMQ Challenge Quilt Along

I've been following Angela Walter's FMQ Challenge Quilt Along for the last month or so and recently practiced week 4's Leafy Meander design.

Leafy Meander - week 4

Back of Leafy Meander

I still have at least two more FMQ designs that I want to add to this collection before calling it done.

Common Thread Quilt Guild Show - Ottawa

Next weekend (May 11 to 13) is the Common Thread Quilt Guild show. I'm really looking forward to seeing my friends' creations of the last two years.

I will have four small quilts in the show - the Charming baby quilt, the Tea Time - England souvenir wall hanging, and two art quilts - the Canada 150 and the Isles Canarias. Since this is a quilt show and not an fibre art show, I decided to show my more mainstream quilts.

Canada 150

Tea Time

Islas Canarias

Charming

I still have to put temporary sleeves on Charming and Canada 150, as well as make a label for Charming. I'd better get this done this week since I'm sure we have to drop all our quilts off soon :-)

This is my To-Do Tuesday list.

Art with Fabric Spring 2018 Blog Hop

It's coming along! Here's a preview of my quilt to date.

Preview of Art with Fabric
Spring 2018 piece

I'm at the stage of thread drawing, that is, FMQ on the fabric, before adding the batting.

I always find it a challenge to figure out what needs to be highlighted or drawn with thread as opposed to actually quilted. I've tried various techniques but at this time I like to do some thread drawing to attach the fabric as add highlights before doing the actual quilting.

What I learned

I have some great fabric for more "boyish" cuddle quilts. I can's wait to start playing with them.
I also want to try some variations of the Comfort Quilt pattern for them.
The Leafy Meander FMQ design is very forgiving. I messed up in a couple of spots but just kept going. I made sure to not leave any big empty spots because those are more obvious than mistakes in the design.
I'll be taking some pictures of the quilt show next weekend and writing up a post. It's so much fun learning from other people's quilts - their colour choices, their FMQ, etc.
I expect to spend the weekend finishing this piece up. I am sooooo looking forward to that 😊
I haven't posted a picture of my inspiration art piece yet, Sunrise by the Ocean by Vladimir Kush because I really don't want to push the copyright issue. I'll just post it on my official blog hop post on May 21. The link to the image is included below in the Related Links.

Monday, April 16, 2018

FMQ, design wall and a quilt-along

Batik Quilt

As I mentioned in my last post, I liked the Feather Meander pattern so much that I used it in my third batik quilt. I've really had a blast quilting it, until I ran out of thread :-(

Here it is, about half quilted.

The quilted half of my batik quilt 3

I used the Feather Meander that I learned from Angela Walter's FMQ Challenge Quilt Along. I wanted to use an all-over quilt design on this quilt, since I had never done this before. This is a perfect FMQ design that you can make as large or as small as you need it to be.

FMQ Feather Meander

At the top left of this picture, you can see two blocks that haven't been quilted yet. The quilting does tone down the colours but they are still vibrant. I used Kimono silk thread from Superior Threads - a mid blue for the top, and an orange for the back.

Making a design wall

I've always wanted a design wall. I bought a little one years ago but it's too small to be useful.

Last year, I read something on the web about using Craft Board to make a design wall. I had heard of using other material, but craft board from the dollar store was right up my alley.

It took me a few months, but I finally went to my favourite discount fabric store in Cornwall - Ron's Fabric. It's only about an hour away but I don't even cross town to shop, so going to another town doesn't happen often.

He has some great fabric and also great prices on flannel - which I've used before. So I finally bought a couple of yards of white flannel to make two design boards.

Front of my new design board made of
craft board and flannel

I heard that you're supposed to put a layer of batting under the flannel, but I'm not convinced. I don't need to pin anything down. Hopefully it'll work for what I need it for, otherwise, it's very easy to pull apart and fix. I just ironed the flannel and then taped it tightly to the back side of the craft board.

The back of the design wall -
another use for duck tape!

To make sure that it worked, I placed the 5 panels that I've quilted in Angela Walter's FMQ Challenge Quilt Along on the design wall. They have been there for about 24 hours and don't seem to want to fall!

FMQ panels on the design wall.

Comfort Quilt Quilt-Along

Amy Ellis of Amy's Creative Side is hosting a quilt-along to celebrate her new book, Modern Heritage Quilts: New Classics for Every Generation. We are making her Comfort Quilt and Amy has provided the calculations for making this quilt in 6 different sizes.

I bought all of that flannel at Ron's to make this quilt. I'm hoping to make at least 4 cuddle quilts to donate to the neonatal unit through the Common Thread Quilt Guild. I made a couple a few years ago, but am way behind since I've been wanting to make at least one per year.

If I get bored of making the same quilt, I can always make a couple of quilts from the other patterns in her book. I've drafted 6 patterns for 20" x 20" quilts based on Amy's book. We'll see how far I get😊

If you get a chance, sign up to join the Quilt-Along. It starts next week.

What I learned

The feather meander design is very forgiving. It took me a few tries on paper to get the hang of it. I find it harder to make it larger than small, but after FMQ a few dozen, I'm getting the hang of it.
I say that I'm getting the hang of it, but when I ran out of thread, I was actually quilting on the inside of the curve instead of the outside. Just for something different.
I've never quilted a whole quilt with only one design because I tend to get bored. I've done fairly well on this piece and it's fun to fill in the spaces between the meandering feathers.
This quilting design has really helped me make feathers from any position. For traditional feathers, I have to quilt them with the stem down. I might now be able to experiment with other positions. That's always a good thing, especially when quilting large projects.
Thanks Angela for the opportunity to learn the Feather Meander.

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Free Motion Challenge Quilt Along update

I've got a lot of projects on the go, but they're not really at a stage to include in a post yet. So here's one update:

Free Motion Challenge Quilt Along with Angela Walters

I've really enjoyed the weekly videos that Angela produces, even if I haven't watched them or practiced them in order. Since I'm behind anyway, I've decided to start with the ones I like.

From Week 7 I did both the Swirl and the Feather Meanders

Swirl FMQ pattern

Feather Meanders FMQ pattern

Feather Meanders from the back

As I got near the end of the Feather Meanders, I could feel myself getting into a grove. That's why I'm quilting my friend's batik quilt with Feather Meanders. I love it!

Week 8 was Clam shells.

Angela just drew the horizontal lines to make the different rows even but I drew in the first row of clam shells to make sure that they would be relatively even. As you can see, I tried a few variations based on both Angela's tutorial and her eye candy.

Clam shells and a few variations

From Week 6, I practiced the Serpentine. That was tough, even if I practiced a lot with pen on paper. I've always had problems with "S" curves. I seem to have a flair for curls more than "S" curves!

"S" curves or serpentine

What I learned

I thought that it would be a great idea to work on sandwiched blocks instead of a whole quilt. In theory it sounds great, but it gets really difficult when you FMQ near the edge of the block.
I liked the swirls a lot. If they were a little longer and elongated, they would be perfect for a windy sky.
I really liked the idea of clam shells within clam shells (the top right).
My cathedral windows didn't really come out well because the original clam shells were more long than wide. I think that it's best if it's worked within a square, like a grid.
My "S" curves or Serpentine stitch may not be individually great, but when there's a whole wack of them, it's not quite as bad. I think that as long as you don't make something really wildly off, it will probably end up blending in. I don't think that I'll be making rows of Serpentine again but I do like them in smaller areas within a quilt.
If you want to practice your FMQ, this is a great way to do it. However, when FMQ on real quilts with fabric that isn't a solid, and using thread that blends, FMQ is very forgiving - thank goodness. 😊