FMQ Madness!

I once blogged that there might be such as thing as too much of a good thing - that is, free-motion quilting (FMQ). Now I'm not so sure. Since I've gotten better at it, it's become incredibly addictive. I'm not sure that I'll ever be able to just stitch-in-the-ditch or do some minimalist quilting. It doesn't mean that every inch of every quilt needs to be quilted. It still depends on the quilt; its design, use, etc. I'm just saying that it's really, really difficult to not keep going when you're FMQ.

I can safely thank (or blame) Cindy Needham. I have taken both of her Craftsy courses and have watched them both a number of times. Design It, Quilt It: Free-Form Techniques has some great tips on FMQ. The one that got me though, is Machine Quilting Wholecloth Quilts. This course is about creating Wholecloth quilts (basically from one piece of fabric as opposed to a pieced top). Since most of the quilts are just one colour, which means ample opportunities to FMQ.

Her incredible quilts are usually made of vintage linens over plain cotton or silk fabric. Cindy clearly loves her vintage linens and incorporates them on wholecloth quilts while highlighting the original creator's work. This is all beautiful and truthfully, a little intimidating. So, instead of starting with a wholecloth quilt made of linen, I've started with a project that was less intimidating but that let me FMQ like crazy. It's creating a wholecloth quilt from large print fabric. You use a fabric that has interesting shapes that would be fun to quilt, and you quilt it from the back. Let me explain.

The fabric you quilt on becomes the back of the quilt

Here's the fabric that I chose. It's got all kinds of interesting shapes that would be fun to quilt. I created a quilt sandwich with some lovely light yellow-orange fabric. I chose a couple of threads that would go well with the fabric. I used a thicker thread to outline the shapes while the other finer thread was used for the scribbling and other FMQ shapes such as pebbles, straight lines, S-curves and feathers.

Large print wholecloth quilt

All of the quilting is done on the front of the large print fabric. The beauty comes when you look at the other side! Isn't it amazing that quilting that rather gaudy fabric could create a piece of such simplicity and elegance?

This technique is perfect for quilting with metallic threads. These can be very finicky to quilt with unless they are in the bobbin. Since this project is quilted from the back, it highlights all of the bobbin thread. As you can see from the photo, the flowers were quilted with the metallic thread, sometimes 3 or 4 times so that they will show up.

Here are images of some of the details. The metallic thread and the beading add an elegant touch. You can see the scribbling, pebbles and feathers between the outlines of the flowers and leaves.

Details

More details of metallic thread and beading

What I learned:

• Quilting from the back of the quilt took some getting used to but what an end-product! I couldn't wait to take it out to see the results.
• I've since tried to work with metallic thread that was not in the bobbin. What a mess!
• This was a great project to practice FMQ. There was TONS of FMQ and you can't tell from the end product if you followed the lines or not!
• I suspect there will be a few more of these wholecloth large print wall hangings since they were sooooo much fun to work with.
• I may be ready to work with some linens. I'll start with hankies that I picked up in China. At least if doesn't turn out as well as I'd like, I won't have destroyed a vintage piece!

I linked up to Free Motion Mavericks. Have a look!

Many Challenges

To encourage me to keep blogging (I don't need encouragement to quilt!), I've decided to write about a few challenges that I'm participating in.

2015 A Lovely Year of Finishes - March Challenge

I was hoping to participate earlier this year but as you can see, it didn't happen.

The world - crazy quilt style

My goal for March is to complete my Music Challenge quilt for our Guild. Since the deadline is our April meeting, getting it completed before March 31 would be perfect. When we joined the challenge, we were given a fat quarter of music fabric. It has to be incorporated into the quilt (as little or as much as we want). The quilt should illustrate or be inspired by a piece of music.

It took me a while to decide, but I finally picked "Imagine" by John Lennon. It all started with a quilting pattern of people holding hands - what could be better? To make this interesting, I decided to make a 3D quilt. The centre is the world, made from fabrics that represent various cultures and nations, pieced crazy quilt style. I've completed the piecing of the world and have embroidered and embellished it with ribbons etc. I haven't added beads yet since I need to FMQ it first. I'm still not sure how I want to do this yet. I guess I have a couple of weeks to figure it out.

Background

Music Challenge Quilt - so far

I've completed the pieced background and have started FMQ it. I want the "people holding hands" to be the focal point of that section, so I'm still trying to figure out how to finish FMQ it. After that, I will have to attach both pieces together.

What I learned:

• I'm really happy that I took the time to write about this project because the pictures I took have shown me that I have a lot of work to do to get those "people holding hands" to show up.

See you at the end of March!

Common Thread Quilt Guild UFO (Unfinished Objects) Challenge

Our guild is hosting a UFO challenge. Since I had to register just before I left for China in the fall, I made some very quick (and possibly not great) UFO choices. It's a good thing that I have kept my list of quilting projects up to date. I only had to review it to come up with some UFOs for the challenge. Here they are:

1. Snippet flowers in a vase from 2008 (ready to FMQ if I can find it :-(  )
2. Batik quilt from 2011 (needs interesting FMQ since it has too little contrast)
3. South-West art quilt from 2010 (working on it during my lunch - occasionally)
4. Strip-quilt number two from 2012? (needs to be FMQ)
5. Completing my mother's whole cloth quilt from 2002 (hand quilted)

I think that the deadline for the challenge is our May meeting. At this time, two of these projects have a fair chance of getting completed; the South-West art quilt and the Snippet flowers in a vase (if I can find it!).

Frayed Knots Spring/ Summer Garden 2015 Block Exchange

I've included this block exchange as a challenge - cause it is! Having to make 23 blocks by a specific date is definitely a challenge for me. 

We have a choice of many sizes of blocks, as long as they have a 36" perimeter. I'm keeping mine simple by making 9"x 9" blocks. The background has to be pastel colours. I keep forgetting the word "pastel" probably because I don't usually do pastel! It was terrible - I had to shop for pastels :-) 

Some exchange blocks

I am making an assortment of blocks since I don't have the patience to make 23 of the same blocks. It turns out that there aren't that many patterns for 9" x 9" blocks, but I finally figured out that they are essentially variations on 9 patch blocks, so I can either expand a 6" block, or reduce a 12" block. That will give me many more options. I'm not very good in math, so I use grid paper to calculate the sizes. Gotta love grid paper!

Here are a few of my blocks. I have 10 blocks completed. Only 13 left to finish before June! Very do-able.

Check out other participants in the March 2015: Lovely Year of Finishes

Finishing quilted gifts

Although I haven't been blogging much, I have spent a lot of time completing projects (and of course starting many others – but that's for another post!)

Here are two projects that I completed.

Batik Lap Quilt

Batik lap quilt

This quilt was begun over a year ago at a quilting retreat. I don’t often use pre-cut fabric but had gotten these two packages of batik Mini-blueberry Pie Charm Squares by Timeless at a really good price. The colours turned out to be absolutely stunning.

At the time, I was just starting FMQ, so the finished top sat around until I was confident enough to quilt it. I finally quilted it this fall using a lovely stencil. Since the colours are very busy, the quilting shows up well only when looked at up close. I used a lovely shiny blue Madeira polyester thread (Polyneon No. 40). I really like the way it came out.

What I learned:

Quilt label

• When purchasing this type of pre-cut packages, there will probably not be any left-over fabric for the binding (oops!). Luckily, Jan, the owner of The Pickle Dish in Carleton Place was coming to our guild meeting, so I sent her a picture of the quilt and she brought me three beautiful fabrics to choose from. 
• My quilts get quilted when I’m ready. Trying to hurry things is asking for trouble.
• I know that I don’t do deadlines well. This was a supposed to be a wedding gift but it turned out to be a first wedding anniversary gift! I’m sure that it's going to a good home :-)
• I can’t remember where I read about this technique for making a label but the person used a nice font, printed the message and then used a light box to copy the message onto fabric. I think that it turned out well.

Quilt-as-you-go Baby Quilt

Front and back of the QAYG quilt

The other completed project is a baby quilt. It was a Quilt-as-you-go (QAYG) technique that I found on a blog, made by ChrissieD. It’s a QAYG Wholecloth Stripy Quilt. The idea is to use one wholecloth fabric for the front of the quilt, while quilting strips together on the back of the quilt. It’s a great idea, but I didn't really have a fabric that I wanted to use for a quilt top – so I just reversed the concept.

I had a lot of fun putting all of these pretty flannel strips together. In theory, a QAYG quilt is pretty much completed when it’s all pieced, but there was no way I could just leave it quilted with only straight lines.

Quilted flower

Quilted sun

I used some stencils to guide my free-motion quilting (FMQ). Some of the quilting doesn't really show much because of the busyness of the fabric, but it just had to be done!

Here’s one of the flowers that showed up as well as a sun.

What I learned:

• I used flannel for both the front and back of the quilt, as well as a light batting. Personally I think that it’s too thick. 
• Next time I will either not use a batting or use a cotton on one side. I would love to create a real wholecloth quilt with this technique. Check out ChrissieD’s website to see her stunning quilt.

This post is linked to Needle & Thread Thursday, Link-a-Finish Friday, Keep It Simple Make It Fun (KISMIF) and Can I get a Whoop Whoop?. Just posted on Free Motion Mavericks. Check out the fun!

Winter Door Hanging

Winter Door Hanging

I'm getting better....it's still winter and I finished my last seasonal door hanging! And is winter here with a vengeance today:-)

I always make up my door hangings in sections while trying to incorporate different quilting techniques. Of course, since it's my creation, there has to be lots of colour.


The first thing I did was take out my Christmas fabric stash (I hadn't taken it out yet - I wasn't in a very merry mood). I knew that I didn't want just a Christmas theme, but all of my winter fabrics with snowflakes and such are stored together. I decided that I would use the amazing blue fabric with snowflakes as my sky, so of course, a few stars had to be incorporated.

The second layer includes a couple of shapes I received at the Common Thread Quilt Guild social. I found a lovely Santa with polar bears fabric to add to the reindeer and sleigh.

All Bundled Up Snowman

Looking through my magazines, books and quilting patterns, I found a gorgeous snowman pattern called All Bundled Up designed by Kelly Mueller for The Wooden Bear. It doesn't seem to be available any more - that's really too bad.

Next to the snowman, I incorporated a winter cabin which was paper pieced from the book Quilter's Home - Winter by Lois Krushina Fletcher. I couldn't resist putting the Christmas tree in the window and of course, adding a red door. I was going to appliqué a few trees in the background when I found some lovely fabric with romping deer in a snowy forest. It was just perfect for the background.



At the bottom of the hanging, I added more abstract blocks. I had never made snowball blocks, so I incorporated two of them at one end. I had planned on hand-embroidering the snowflakes within them based on &Stitches' blog but finally I got impatient and used FMQ.

I've been wanting to make a log cabin block in dark and light fabrics for a long time. This was my chance. I adapted Block 8 - Winter Cabin from the Quilter's Home - Winter by Lois Krushina Fletcher.


Finally, the last panel is made up following Rayna Gillman's Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts technique. I've used this technique in several projects and find it most effective when the free-form quilt includes a print as a focal point. I think that so far, my best pieces using this technique are my scrappy Christmas wall hangings.

Although the photos don't really show the quilting (except for the coloured snowflakes within the snowballs and the snowflakes behind the snowman), I used this project to keep practicing my free-motion quilting skills. I echoed around the stars, the reindeer, the sleigh and the circle for the two top panels.

I quilted around the trees in the background as well as the cabin itself. For the log cabin and the free-form blocks, I practiced many of the free-motion quilting background patterns that would fit within 1½ inch strips.

What I learned:

• These door hangings are very improvisational - however, when I put the bottom panel together, I could see that my snowball blocks were too large and sticking out. I really should have reduced the log cabin block or the free-form block by an inch ....but I was too lazy to undo these three blocks. It's too bad, because it would have looked much better. 
• Amazingly enough, the FMQ snowflakes came out well - except that I really could have measured out the six branches of the snowflake. It's a good thing no 2 snowflakes are the same!

I'm really proud of my 4 seasonal door hangings. Here they all are!

Spring Door Hanging

Summer Door Hanging

Winter Door Hanging

Fall Door Hanging

This post is included in the following link-ups:

• Fabric Tuesdays

Go see what's going on in the quilting blog world!

February 10, 2015
Check out the new section on my blog: Projects from Books, Mags and Patterns. Since I learned to create new pages and a navigation bar, I am unstoppable :-) I am sooooo happy that this much fun is NOT illegal!

A New Look

Since July, I've been learning how to change and design my blog by following

Beautify your Blog

Erin's Beautify your Blog series.

So far, I've learned to:

• create a new page within the blog;
• create and add a header; 
• change my background colour; and
• create and add a navigation bar (or tabs).

You can follow my journey through my Learning and Design blog.

I auditioned many headers for this blog, but since I'm still missing Bandit so much, I decided to use the header that included his photo. I'm sure that eventually I'll be able to let go - but that time hasn't come yet.

For posterity, here is a photo of the Quilting and Learning Blog as it's been since my first post in March 2012.

Original look

Please use my new navigation bar above to check out my "About Moi" page (it's an ongoing project) and my "Learning and Design" blog.

What I've learned:

• There is a lot of work involved in designing and re-designing a blog.
• Creating a test blog to play with is necessary.
• Even transferring your new look from the test blog to the "real" blog can be tricky.
• It's an ongoing project...
• I LOVE IT!!!!! Not bad for a non-techie :-)

Remembering Bandit (2002-2014)

Two women’s best friend died this week. Bandit brought joy to our lives, especially to my daughter and me.

Adopting Bandit

Bandit was a rescue dog from Florida. Apparently there are a lot of cocker spaniels in Florida and so older dogs have more difficulty getting adopted. Bandit obviously had some wonderful owners in Florida. He was generally well trained and confident…sometimes a little too much!

Two mothers

This is my daughter and I adopting Bandit in January 2012. We got him from a wonderful foster mom. Thanks Margaret for all of your support! Although I had a dog growing up, he wasn't my responsibility so it was a steep learning curve. We also had a good coach in Jane Madigan of Inspired K9s.

Bandit in Northern Ontario

Within a month of moving in, Bandit went on his first road trip to Northern Ontario to my grandmother’s funeral. For a Florida dog, he sure loved snow, especially when he discovered that he could eat it all! He had no problems adapting to the cold and the snow. He was also wonderful in the hotel room. A perfect gentleman.

A confident Bandit on his pink and brown quilt

Of course as soon he moved in he got his first quilt. He would lie down on the couch on his pink and brown quilt. No doubt about it, he was a confident cocker!

Bandit and Twix

Bandit has his own quilt

Bandit was often in my room when I was quilting. Here he is with his cousin Twix (my brother’s dog). They both wanted to be there as I was binding the quilt before my brother and his family moved to Denmark.

Finally, Bandit got a quilt made just for him. I had a great time shopping for fabric in Philadelphia last fall. I also got to practice my free motion quilting.

Last Christmas I made mug rugs for my colleagues. Since I worked late into the evening, Bandit made himself at home in my Christmas stash. What a sweetheart.

Bandit in the Christmas stash

This is one of the last photos of Bandit. He was quite sick and lost a lot of weight. He still loved to hang around with me when I was quilting. I think that one evening he decided that he wanted attention – lying down on my sewing machine pedal did the trick!

Thank you so much Bandit for your love. You are truly missed.

Bandit wants attention

What I learned:

• It turns out that having a healthy pancreas is important :-(
• Unconditional love is rare and precious.
• It's almost more upsetting that it hurts less as time goes by.

Projects Update

December is here! Somehow it always sneaks up on me. Today it feels like fall is finished and winter is on its way. That’s tough because I haven't started my winter door hanging yet…. Although it feels like there is never enough time to quilt, I did get ahead on a few projects, and even managed to finish one!

Orange Peel update

Orange Peel Quilt-along Update

In my last Orange Peel related post, I had finished 29 of my original 36 peels. I had purchased more Tula Pink fabrics and needed more background fabric. Since I wasn't sure which “white” fabric I was using, I ordered a meter of two whites and one neutral. For the record, I’m using the Kona White. Of course, I've now used up my meter and ordered more at Mad About Patchwork…. Got it yesterday. It’ll be in the wash tonight!

Three weeks late, I added an update to the bottom of my original post. By then, I had started cutting and preparing more peels, from both the original and the new Tula Pink fabrics.

Peel chart

Here are the latest numbers:

• 68 finished peel blocks
• 21 basted peels
• 14 peels ready to baste (I got energetic after I took the picture

Now that I have 144 peels to complete (instead of 36), I’ve prepared a charts to keep me on track and motivated. I get to add a check mark whenever I finish a peel block.

What I've learned:

• Might be a good idea to plan ahead…..does that sound familiar? It’s not a lesson I’ve assimilated yet!
• My second batch of peels weren’t as precise as the first batch (i.e. the points aren’t as pointy!) I’m now being more careful about the points. They are much better this time around.

Re-quilting a Batik Runner

A few years ago I fell in love with a pattern for a runner. It was from 'tis the Season by Mount Redoubt Designs. In my head, I had a vision of a beautiful runner in batiks. I completed the runner (without the appliqués) but wasn't really impressed with the result. I used beautiful batiks but it just didn't do anything for me. At the time, I was also very new at machine quilting so the runner had very little quilting.

Centre quilting to highlight the flowers

Since I've been re-quilting various projects, when I last came upon the runner in my linen closet, I took it out. I finally got around to FMQ it. What a difference it makes! I thought I had taken a picture of it when I originally finished it, but I guess I was so disappointed that I didn't.

I started by stitching each seam in the ditch. That was actually a real improvement. I had created this runner around the middle fabric – which has daisy shapes painted on in different colours. I was able to quilt around the daisy shapes and make them stand out. I left the pink blocks around them un-quilted to highlight the daisy blocks.

A rounded feather for a corner triangle

I FMQ the light fabric at the ends of the runner with a feathered heart. I wasn't quite brave enough to quilt it free-hand so I drew it on and then sort of followed the pattern. The pattern comes from Follow-the-Line Quilting Designs Volume 4 - Full-Size Patterns for Blocks and Borders by Mary M. Covey. It’s the Rounded Feather for a corner triangle.

For the light blue squares near the end, I FMQ flower designs within 4 squares and then quilted a smaller flower in the two remaining squares. The large flower pattern is from Eva A. Larkin's Free-Motion Quilting Made Easy. The design is a diagonal double loop. I used a simple design since anything fancy would not have shown against the batik background.

Finished re-quilted table runner

In the four on-point red squares next to the light blue squares, I just followed some of the lines that are within the fabric. Finally for the dark blue batik squares surrounding the centre piece, I FMQ a continuous-line lotus flower in each block.

I'm really happy with the result. FMQ has turned a drab table runner into one with pizzazz!

What I learned:

• The second feathered heart came out much better than the first. I should have practiced it before quilting it on the runner.
• When I FMQ free-hand, I always practice beforehand. However, when I use stencils or follow hand-drawn patterns, I tend to just “wing it” instead of practicing these new patterns. Invariably, my quilting always gets better with practice.
• I really need to prepare some sandwiched fabric pieces to practice these patterns. I’ve used up all of my good practice sandwiches. I’ve learned that it’s important to use dull fabrics, otherwise I can’t see the FMQ on the busy fabrics. Let’s face it, the real problem is that I don’t want to use any of my fabric to practice on!

This post is linked to Fabric Tuesday - Quilt Story, Anything Goes Mondays and Needle and Thread Thursday. 

Note: I was advised that one of my links in the post was backlinking to a counterfeit site. I have removed all the links in this post. Thanks for your understanding.