FMQ garden and pond
You may have been watching this free motion quilted (FMQ) practice piece progress in the last couple of months.
![]() |
| Latest of the FMQ garden and pond |
![]() |
| FMQ garden and pond in grey thread |
![]() |
| Adding colour to the FMQ garden and pond |
![]() |
| Last night's results |
- more flowers ✔
- shrub
- grass ✔
- butterfly
- bird
- rocks ✔
- frog
- turtle ✔
- fish
- cattails
- other pond vegetation ✔
Last night I added the Rudbeckia flowers based on Muv's great tutorial (the link is in Related links). I also added grass in front of the pond and the grey outline for a rock and more water.
Tonight I added some water, more vegetation in front of the pond, a rock with a turtle sunning herself and a few more plants in the garden. I also added some lines with a Frixion pen in order to square it so that I know how far I need to FMQ.
![]() |
| The pond now has a turtle sunning herself on a rock |
![]() |
| There is more vegetation in front of the pond |
![]() |
| There is more grass and flowers in the garden |
- Last night I Googled "how to draw..." many of the things on my list above. I wasn't in a good learning space so my attempts to draw butterflies and fish were not successful. I know that I can do this, eventually and these don't have to be in the piece yet.
- I didn't add a frog (one of my favourite animals) in this piece but the turtle got in without too much effort.
- I was worried that the Rudbeckia would dominate but they look fine in the photo of the whole piece.
- I really am doing this backwards because the background should have been done first....that's what happens when you don't plan...but it's a wonderful use of my ability to adapt!
- I really debated about using the grey thread to outline new features since I know that I'm now using colour, and I did outline with grey last night in order to be consistent. However tonight I just skipped it. I'm not sure that it makes a huge difference.
- I'm really not sure what I want to add in the background. What do you think - would a couple of butterflies and/or a bird be enough, or should I add a shrub and plants to make it denser? I would love your opinion if you want to share it😊
- Adding Color and Free Motion Mavericks, April 10, 2019
- Spring is in the air with Free Motion Mavericks, March 13, 2019
- Muv's tutorial for the Rudbeckia Design at Lizzie Lenard Vintage Sewing
I will be linking up to many fun linking parties. Join me to see what else is going around Quilting Blog Land and don't forget to link up to Free Motion Mavericks below! Design Wall Monday, Moving It Forward, What I Made Monday, Tuesday Colour Linky Party, Midweek Maker, Let's Bee Social, Needle & Thread Thursday, Off the Wall Friday, Finished or Not Friday, Friday Foto Fun, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?, Monday Making,
Free Motion Mavericks
I am so thrilled with your continued support of this link-up. Two weeks ago we had TEN link-ups. Yeah!!!!! I really hope that this is the beginning of a trend. The emphasis may be on FMQ but we had a few link ups with hand quilting and others made on longarm machines. If you're wondering about the difference between free motion quilting and longarm quilting, check out Leah Day's post: Quilting on a Home Machine Versus Longarm Machine. I'm happy to have all quilters join us!
The hardest part of co-hosting this blog is choosing just one project to highlight! You are all amazing quilters! Here is Vasudha of Storied Quilts who designed and free motion quilted Diamond Showers on her longarm. Wow! Here's the link to her post, in case you haven't seen it yet.
![]() |
| Diamond Showers |












