Jul 292012
 

I fell a bit behind on the Free Motion Quilting Challenge after January. Partly because I bought a used Juki for my new quilting machine, but have yet to master the thing. No matter how much I use it I can’t control the speed. I would swear I’m not changing the pressure on the pedal at all yet the speed keeps shifting – faster or slower at random. I’ve reached the point where I’m going to take it in for servicing to see if it’s me or the machine. If it’s me I’m going to start hunting for another machine.

Finally the pile of WTBQ (waiting to be quilted) projects reached the point (I ran out of safety pins) that I set up my trusty Pfaff and went to work. I actually reached the point where I’m starting to feel like just maybe I can learn this FMQ thing. If only the Pfaff had more throat space!

One of the projects was a “modern” pink squares thing I threw together following a tutorial on Leah Day’s site. The concept was to practice the stippling variations she has taught, but I decided to use it to try out a bunch of filler designs I’ve been wanting to use. I also threw in some I’ve done before, and then used the three designs Ann Fahl covered in her tutorial for March for the Free Motion Quilting Challenge.

Here are the three:

Meandering stars

Spirals

Flowers

 July 29, 2012  Posted by at 3:56 pm Free Motion Quilt Challenge No Responses »
Jul 222012
 

Free Motion Quilting Challenge update for July.

I did it! Quilted the design for this month before the month was over. I missed the last 5 months due to sewing machine issues (which meant not doing any FMQ work), but I’ve got more tops waiting. Next step is to review the missed months and decide which top will get which design, although some will need practice pieces first and I may not do them all.

 This scrap top has been hanging around for a few years, waiting for me to add a little paint or something around the edges. I finally did a couple weeks ago, using a bronze paintstick and a cheap imitation cut-glass dish for the rubbing plate (literal plate in this case). I thought it would be fun to use the tiling design on this quilt and match up the “tiles” with the scrap sections. It was fun, but the end result doesn’t show up very well. I think you can see it better on the back, even though I chose a print to help hide my lovely quilting. I used a spiral fill in the purple areas and stippling in the scrappy areas. Mostly.

I’ve upped the contrast on these two pictures to help show the quiltng:

 July 22, 2012  Posted by at 10:01 am Free Motion Quilt Challenge 1 Response »