I Call FINISHED: 2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge, Completed At Last!

All Twelve; All DONE!

TODAY is the deadline for SewCalGal's Second Chance entries for the 2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge, and I have finished my twelfth and final challenge entry just a few minutes ago.  (Click on the above photo to enlarge it so you can see all 12 pieces).


Hybrid April 2012 & October 2012 BONUS Challenge Exercises

Since I had already completed eleven of the twelve required challenges, I decided to combine Don Linn's April 2012 tutorial for using tulle mesh to mark a quilt top with Diane Loomis's October 2012 Bonus tutorial for machine trapunto.

Wooden Embroidery Hoop, Bridal Tulle, Sharpie Marker and Don Linn's Design

First, I traced the quilting motif from Don's April tutorial onto bridal tulle with an extra-fine point Sharpie marker.  Then I used one of those purple disappearing ink markers (BAD move!) to trace over the tulle on top of my silk dupioni fabric.  And then I spent WAY too much time drawing concentric lines spaced half an inch apart throughout the background, which I planned to fill with all sorts of fun designs at the end, but alas this was not meant to be for reasons you will understand shortly.

Design Transferred to Silk Fabric with Purple Marker

Once I had my fabric marked, I switched to Diane Loomis's tutorial for machine trapunto.  I threaded up my machine with YLI water-soluble basting thread in the needle, 60/2 cotton embroidery thread in the bobbin, lowered my upper thread tension considerably so my sewing machine would play nice with the specialty thread, and layered a piece of Quilter's Dream Poly batting, Request loft, beneath my glittery silk fabric, with NO backing.  I quilted just INSIDE the marked purple line with my water-soluble thread and then used my rounded tip Dovo embroidery scissors to carefully trim away the excess poly batting from the back side, just next to the stitching line.

Back Side of Design, Excess Poly Trapunto Batting Trimmed Away

Then I layered my silk piece over a large piece of thin cotton batting like what I normally use for machine quilting with a piece of muslin backing so I had a quilt sandwich.  I switched to silk thread in the needle and left the 60/2 cotton embroidery thread in the bobbin.  I started to quilt around the decorative motif again, just OUTSIDE the purple line this time, but I had to stop before I was finished so I could make it to my kids' school in time for the Halloween parties.  (I'm a 5th grade room parent and I had food and craft activities to set up and supervise).  When I got back to my sewing room a few hours later, I discovered to my horror that all of the lines I had so painstakingly drawn in purple ink had almost completely disappeared while I was gone.  I attempted to redraw some of the lines, but the silk fabric was kind of ripply from the trapunto work and would not lay perfectly flat anymore, and it was too late for me to start over because the challenge deadline is TODAY and it's Halloween and the door bell is about to start ringing...  So I had to just go with the flow and do the best I could under the circumstances.

I was able to quilt around the center trapunto motif fairly accurately because I could clearly see the previous stitching in basting thread even though the ink had vanished prematurely.  Then, because the clock was ticking, I switched to my walking foot and tried to quilt as many of the straight lines as I could.  Once I realized they were crooked and wonky and I was going blind trying to follow marking lines that no longer existed, I made the Executive Decision to call this one FINISHED.  I did, after all, complete both Don's tutorial exercise for marking the quilting design, as well as completing the steps for machine trapunto from Diane's tutorial.  I added some pebbling around the trapunto design so I could see the dimensional effect of the added padding better, and practiced a couple of border designs between my crooked lines.  If the rest of my lines hadn't vanished before I could quilt them, my last step would have been to wash the finished quilt or soak it in water to dissolve the basting thread.  (That sounds like a Laundry Challenge, don't you think?)  I WILL try this machine trapunto technique again, but I am putting all of my purple markers in with my machine embroidery supplies from now on so I never make the mistake of marking a quilt top with them again.  The BLUE markers that wash out in cold water are what I should have used for this assignment!

Well, the clock is ticking, so I'd better do a quick recap so I can get this post up before the Linky closes.  Here are the links that will take you back to all twelve original FMQ Challenge posts on SewCalGal's blog, as well as links to my own post for each completed assignment:

1. Angela Walters' July Quilted Tiles tutorial, my efforts posted here on 7/3/2012
2. Ann Fahl's March Thread Dancing tutorial (no longer available online), my efforts posted here on 7/19/2012 
3. Wendy Sheppard's August Jester Hat tutorial, my efforts posted here on 8/12/2012
4. Paula Reid's September Feathered Wreath tutorial, my efforts posted here on 9/30/2012
5. Teri Lucas's October Signature tutorial, my efforts posted here on 10/20/2012
6. Frances Moore's January Leafy Vines tutorial, my efforts posted here on 10/24/2012
7. Sarah Vedeler's November Spirals tutorial, my efforts posted here on 11/28/2012
8. Diane Gaudynski's February Feathers tutorial, my efforts posted here on 6/16/2013
9. Cindy Needham's June Divide and Conquer tutorial, my efforts posted here on 7/20/2013
10. Leah Day's May Foundational Stippling tutorial, my efforts posted here on 10/9/2013
11. Patsy Thompson's Border Design tutorial, my efforts posted here on 10/25/2013
12. Don Linn's April Tulle Marking tutorial and Diane Loomis's October Bonus Machine Trapunto tutorial, my efforts posted right here at the top of THIS post, right now, at the last possible moment on 10/31/2013!

All Twelve Together: My (Two) Year-Long FMQ Journey

I want to send a HUGE thank you out to SewCalGal for hosting the 2012 and 2013 Free-Motion Quilting Challenges, to each and every one of the teachers who graciously donated their time and their tutorials, and to all of the sponsors who donated prizes to keep the excitement going over the past two years.  I'd also like to thank all of the other 2,000+ participants world-wide who made the commitment to spend a year working on their free-motion quilting skills and to share photos of their struggles and successes in the Flicker group and on their personal blogs.  Seeing photos of everyone else's progress online has been so incredibly inspiring and motivating, and when I look back at my own earliest quilting samples it's amazing to see how much my quilting skills have improved over the last year and a half.  I wouldn't say that practice makes PERFECT (yet!), but at least now I know I'm on the right track!

By the way, if you're at all interested in machine embroidery, you won't want to miss SewCalGal's Fall Machine Embroidery Blog Hop that runs all next week.  I'm scheduled to post on Wednesday, November 6th, and I have some VERY unique embroidery designs to share with youyou.  We will all be featuring machine embroidered projects from a talented professional digitizer, sharing best practices for machine embroidery, and I believe we will each be hosting a fabulous GIVEAWAY, so be sure to check back November 4th through the 8th!  Here's the official schedule and lineup of machine embroidery bloggers for that event:

Monday, November 4th

• SewCalGal – www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com

Tuesday, November 5th:

• I Have A Notion  - http://www.ihaveanotion.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, November 6th:

• ME! ME! ME! -  Cheeky Cognoscenti   - http://www.cheekycognoscenti.blogspot.com/
• Patsy Thompson Designs - http://www.patsythompsondesigns.com/blog/ 

Thursday, November 7th:

• Beaquilter - http://www.beaquilter.com/
   

Friday, November 8th:

• Stormy Days - http://stormy-daysblog.blogspot.com/
• SewCalGal – www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com

 
Now that I got all of THAT out of the way, I can get on with my Halloween!

December 2012 FMQ Border Challenge with Patsy Thompson

December 2012 FMQ Border Challenge Completed (Backing Side)

As you know if you are a frequent visitor, I am scrambling desperately to complete all 12 free-motion quilting challenge exercises of the SewCalGal 2012 FMQ Challenge by the Second Chance deadline of October 31st, 2013.  What's that, six days from today?  Yes, that's how I roll...  For the past few days, I've been working on Patsy Thompson's December 2012 challenge tutorial on border designs.  This is a fat quarter sized practice sample, approximately 18" x 22", and I burned through an entire spool of Mettler 60/2 cotton embroidery thread.  Fortunately, I had almost an exact color match in another brand of 60/2 cotton thread, because I was hell-bent on getting this challenge finished tonight and no one who sells good thread is open for business at 9 PM in Charlotte.

It took me at least an hour just to mark the straight (or straightISH, as it turned out) lines delineating where each pattern would begin and end.  I used an acrylic straight line tool with Velcro grip teeth on the bottom to help me quilt along the straight lines, which took some practice before I got the hang of it.  Then, the quilting of the actual designs -- it was agonizing this time.  From a distance it looks pretty good, but as I was doing the quilting I was very frustrated that I could not get the quilting to come out on the fabric looking as good as it had in my imagination.  The border pattern that I thought would be easiest turned out to be very difficult for me, and nothing was coming out the way I wanted it to.  In all honesty, this probably has a lot to do with the fact that, being down to the wire with this challenge, I skipped the "practice doodling the designs until you are comfortable drawing them" step...  Ahem.

Finished Piece, Right Side Up

The first photo I showed is actually the back of the piece.  Although my orchid purple thread shows up well enough on the blue and purple batik fabric in person, it's really hard to see in pictures. 

Most of the border designs I used on this piece came directly from Patsy's excellent tutorial, but I did mix in a couple of other new designs that I've been wanting to try.  The "Squiggle Square" motif in the outer border was from one of Lori Kennedy's free-motion quilting tutorials over at The Inbox Jaunt.  I also attempted to replicate one of Judi Madsen's quilting motifs that looks like a string of stuffed olives (when she does it) but mine did not turn out so smooth and round.  I'm most pleased by how much straighter I was able to quilt the straight lines in this piece and by the overall balance I achieved by alternating dense/open quilting, curvy/geometric quilting, and the way the center and unquilted strips puff up for relief.  It looks kind of like a museum frame around a painting, doesn't it?

When I pull out the entire year's worth of practice samples, I know I will be amazed by how far my free-motion quilting skills have come, and if I wash this piece the "oopsies" will probably be lost in the puckering and quilty goodness.  Although my feathers are still not as good as I would like them to be, I really loved Patsy's method for marking the spines with a flexible ruler tool, which she demonstrates in this YouTube video:

So now I have completed 11 challenges, and I have one more to go between now and Halloween.  Wish me luck!

Leah Day's May 2012 FMQ Challenge Tutorial: Foundational Quilting Designs

SewCalGal is offering a second chance to those of us who did not complete all twelve challenge exercises during her 2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge, and I have until October 31st to complete my remaining challenges. 



My Completed Foundational Stippling Piece, From the Back

Today I completed Leah Day's Foundational Quilting challenge exercise, which was posted on SewCalGal's blog here back in May of 2012.  Leah Day has a treasure trove of free tutorials, designs, and advice for free-motion quilting on a domestic sewing machine that you can find on her web site, Day Style Designs.  Leah's site is an especially good resource for absolute beginners who are terrified of free-motion quilting, and I love that she has so many great ideas for setting up a workspace and getting great results using basic machines and furniture that you probably already own or can obtain inexpensively.  She's so encouraging and empowering that I DARE you to watch one of her videos and then tell me you can't do it afterwards!  Leah might look like she's all of 15 years old, but she has published several books and instructional DVDs and she has taught and encouraged literally thousands of quilters all over the world. 

The concept behind Leah's Foundational Designs exercise is to quilt a meandering path through the entire area you are quilting and then go back and "wiggle" back and forth across that line with either rounded or deliberately jagged stipple quilting.  I had a fat quarter of red Eiffel Tower print fabric lying around the studio that I had previously machine appliquéd with the letters of our last name for a carpool tag -- something to stick in the dashboard area when we're picking up the kids so they know which student to send out to which vehicle.  I already made a solid black fabric version of my "Too Cool for School" carpool tag into a quilted pillow that you can see here, and I'll probably give that one to Bernie for his car and keep this red Eiffel Tower version for the Mommy Ride. 



Invisible Quilting -- See Why I Showed the Back First?

I didn't want the quilting to be too visible on this piece because I thought it would just be fighting the busy print (which I love), so I chose a red shade of 50/3 Gutermann cotton thread and made my initial meandering quilting path so that it went around the Eiffel Towers, never through them.  I like the way this made the towers puff up a little without emphasizing them the way that outline quilting would have done...  but I didn't intend for my quilting to be THIS invisible!  You can't even see the quilting when your nose is 2" from the fabric! 

 

Lesson Learned: Matching Quilting Thread to Background Fabric = INVISIBLE Quilting!

If I had this to do over, I think I would have chosen a heavier weight quilting thread in black for this piece.  Whatever -- it's a carpool tag, not a masterpiece, and it was good stippling practice. 

As of right now, I have ten challenge exercises completed and just two left to get done in the next three weeks.  Are you rooting for me?

Cindy Needham's June 2012 FMQ Challenge Tutorial: Divide And Conquer!

No, that isn't a typo -- this free-motion quilting challenge was released over a year ago, but SewCalGal has given those of us who are straggling a second chance to complete all twelve FMQ challenges from last year.  As of today, I have NINE completed and only THREE more to go...

11" x 22" June Challenge Piece, quilted with 40 wt King Tut variegated cotton

Cindy Needham's very thorough and informative June 2012 tutorial can be found on SewCalGal's site here.  The idea was to divide the sample quilt sandwich into random, odd-sized intervals with a meandering line, and to fill each space with a different quilting motif.  Cindy suggests a mix of circles, straight(ish) lines, and S-curves.  I tried to incorporate a mixture of those, as well as some other designs I needed to practice.  My soap bubble/pebbles are getting better, don't you think? 

The lettering was machine appliqued with the Jumbo Hoop on my Bernina 750 QE several months ago, and as you can see in the photo below, I initially did not have enough stabilizer and I floated an additional sheet beneath the hoop after the "U" stitched out.  I was able to easily quilt out ALL of the puckering and wrinkles.  This piece is destined to become a carpool tag to stick in the windshield when we're in the line waiting to pick the kids up after school.  Plain white paper with black lettering just isn't fancy enough for me...  ;-)

Machine Appliqued and Pin-Basted Prior to Quilting

I have had the best luck in the past using very fine threads for free-motion quilting, like 60 weight cotton embroidery thread or #100 silk thread, but these challenge exercises are all about moving OUT of your comfort zone and trying something new, so I used a spool of Superior Thread's King Tut 40 weight variegated cotton machine quilting thread.  I thought it would pop nicely against the solid black background fabric.

King Tut #906, Autumn Days 40/3 Cotton

What a pain in the butt this heavy thread is to quilt with, though!  I started out trying to use the King Tut thread in the needle as well as in the bobbin, and I just couldn't get the tension to look nice consistently on the front and back of the work. 

King Tut in the Bobbin, Back Side -- YUCK!

50/3 Mettler Cotton in the Bobbin

I consulted Superior's web site, where they recommend a 90 Topstitch needle (check!) and a much lighter weight thread in the bobbin.  I didn't have any of Superior's Bottom Line or Masterpiece threads, so I wound a bobbin of yellow and white variegated 50/3 Mettler cotton thread instead.  I experimented with much lower needle tension, and it got better, but still looked pretty beastly-looking on the backside, especially any place where I had to backtrack over previous lines of stitching.

I decided to just make sure the front looked as pretty as possible for this exercise, but it I ever use this King Tut stuff again I'm going to have to do a lot more tweaking to get an attractive stitch with it.  I don't really like the look of heavy weight quilting thread anyway, so I'm going back to my skinny threads after this!

It does look cool from the front, doesn't it?  I tried to follow Cindy's advice about balancing curved line designs with straight lines.  This finished piece measures approximately 11" x 22."  I've decided to make it into a pillow cover (which will hide the ugly stitches on the back) so it can serve double-duty for extra lumbar support.  Also a 10" x 20" pillow is just the right size to wedge between the windshield and dashboard so my carpool "tag" can be clearly read by school staff who are calling out names on their walkie-talkies. 

I'd like to thank Cindy Needham for providing this wonderful tutorial, and SewCalGal for hosting (and extending) the 2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge!

 

Better Late Than Never: February 2012 FMQ Challenge Completed, Feathers With Diane Gaudynski

Embroidery Disaster Saved by Free-Motion Quilting!

Remember the 2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge hosted by SewCalGal?  Each month last year, a different free-motion quilting expert provided an online tutorial with a practice exercise.  We were supposed to complete all twelve by the end of the year, but I didn't even find out about the challenge until June I only managed to complete seven by year's end.  Although I was brand-new to free-motion quilting at the beginning of this challenge, I found that setting aside a couple of hours once a month to practice quilting motifs has made a HUGE difference -- like the difference between drawing with a pen in my hand versus trying to draw with a pen clasped between my toes.  Well, SewCalGal recently announced a "second chance" for those of us who did not meet the goal in 2012, and I now have until October 31st to finish the remaining challenges. 



So, back in April I spent something crazy like 6 hours embroidering this enormous Jacobean bird design, only to have it shrink up and pucker when I attempted to press the finished piece from the back side?  (I have a theory about that, by the way -- I had layered a piece of unwashed muslin beneath the silk shantung prior to embroidering for extra stability, then trimmed away the excess when the embroidery was complete.  I think the muslin backing shrank when I ironed it).  

Ruined Embroidery Project, Ripe for FMQ Practice

I decided to use this ruined embroidery project for FMQ practice, to see whether I could quilt out those ugly puckers and ripples between the embroidered areas.  I spent several hours yesterday and today working on Diane Gaudynski's February 2012 feather tutorial, and I could not be more thrilled with the results.  I have admired Diane's machine quilting, and the machine quilting of her students, for years, and I own both of her wonderful books.  Still, I've not felt up to the challenge of trying to quilt feathers until now.  This is the first time for me just sitting down at the machine and quilting feathers over and over again.  They're far from perfect up close, but much better than I ever thought I would be able to do.  And, thanks to the FMQ challenge, I now know that my quilting skills WILL get better and better, the more I practice.  If I can do this, ANYONE can learn!

 

So yes, I was able to quilt out all of the puckers in this embroidery design, and what's more, I managed to quilt some passable feathers and lumpy-but-acceptable pebble background quilting.  I have long struggled with both of those designs and have been practice-doodling feathers on my iPad for months.  Wahoo!

 

 

Can you believe this is the exact same project as the ugly wrinkled mess in the previous photo?  I almost threw this away!  Now I like it so much that I have to come up with something to do with it.  The finished piece is 16" x 20."  Any ideas?  I suppose I could just square the edges, bind it, and call it a "mini wall quilt." 

 

I'm Quilting Feathers! 

I attempted several different feather styles, but even though the traditional, backtracked feathers are supposed to be the most difficult to quilt, those were the easiest for me -- probably because that's the way I've been doodling them.  However, I was NOT doodling the stem correctly, so all of my stems are a bit wonky.

 

My fabric is a glitter-flecked silk shantung layered with Hobbs Tuscany Silk batting and muslin backing.  I used #100 silk thread in the needle and 60/2 Mettler cotton embroidery thread in the bobbin, with a size 60 Microtex needle, tension reduced to 1.50, and BSR stitch length set to 1.5.

 

It even looks cool from the back, see?

 

Back View

 

So now that's one more down, and only four more to go.





November FMQ Challenge: Cinnamon Roll Spirals with Sarah Vedeler

November FMQ Challenge: Spiral Swirlibobs in Two Sizes

Yay!  I finished the November Free-Motion Quilting Challenge exercise, two whole days before the end of the month!  Nevermind that I still have four more months to make up before the end of the year, plus the December tutorial...  One at a time!

This month's challenge tutorial comes to us from Sarah Vedeler, an accomplished quilter and designer of gorgeous machine embroidered applique designs for quilters.  Sarah provided us with the formula for a basic spiral, template pages to print and trace for practice, and encouraged us to quilt a whole fat quarter sandwich full of rows of spirals in two sizes. 

I prefer to practice doodling new quilting designs in various iPad drawing apps, since I always have my iPad with me when I find myself waiting in the carpool line, the Starbucks drive-through, etc.  So I traced over the PDF template over and over with my stylus, erasing my "chalk" marks and starting over on the same template again and again.

Then I switched to a different drawing app, one with a graph paper background option, and practiced drawing the spirals freehand.  It wasn't as easy as it looks, and most of my spirals were shaped more like the wheels on the Flintstone family car than like actual circles.  After a few days of this, they did start getting better.

So tonight, I layered up a seasonal snowman printed fabric on top, Hobbs Tuscany Silk batting scraps in the middle, and an ugly brown paisley fabric for my backing. 

Sarah had instructed us to mark out 1" and 2" grids on our practice sandwich so we could practice two sizes of spirals.  Unfortunately, I had trouble with ALL of my marking pens and pencils today -- the purple and blue markers, chalk and soapstone pencils -- none of them would make a line on that green snowman fabric that I could see long enough to draw the adjacent line.  I finally grabbed the musty, ancient cigar box full of tailor's chalk that once belonged to Bernie's grandparents who were tailors.  Now, do as I say, not as I do -- you're NOT supposed to mark the front of your quilt with tailor's chalk because it is intended for marking the WRONG SIDES of garment fabric, and it might not wash out of a finished quilt.  But I had this whole box, with so many colors, and I didn't want to put the challenge off another day, so I threw caution to the wind and tried white, gray, yellow, and finally a lipstick red piece of tailor's chalk.  Again, I would never use this to mark a real quilt.  Who knows what kind of dye makes it red?  I'm planning to wash my practice sandwich now that it's finished, to see whether the markings come out or not. 

Also, now that I'm done with this, I notice there are bulges of fabric puffing up between my spirals, and I don't really like that.  So, if this was for a real quilt, it might be worth it to actually quilt the grid lines with water soluble basting thread before quilting the spirals.  Then I'd only have to mark the first line, and I could use that guide thingy on my walking foot to space all the other lines evenly.

Cinnamon Roll Surprise!

Oh, and the surprise?  When I flipped my practice sandwich over after quilting it, I discovered that my "ugly" brown backing fabric had been transformed into cinnamon rolls by the quilting design!  Mmmm...  I wonder if there's any chance I could convince my husband to go out in search of cinnamon rolls at 9:30 at night?  I'm suddenly hungry...

So, my November FMQ challenge is completed and crossed off my list. I still have four more months to make up in addition to the new challenge that will be posted in December.  I wonder if I'll be able to fit them all in by the end of the year?  I want to thank Sarah Vedeler for sharing her spiral tutorial, and SewCalGal for hosting the challenge.   

Thanksgiving Wrap-Up 2012: Grampa's In-House Catering Service Saves the Day

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful, restful day, complete with good food and surrounded with the blessings of friends and family. 

We have so much to be thankful for this year.  The cease-fire in Gaza reminds me of how fortunate we are to live in a place where violence is rare and the day-to-day safety of our loved ones is something we can take for granted.  We're thankful for our home, our livelihood, our community, and for the wonderful teachers who bless our children with their dedication and enthusiasm every single day.  And we're thankful for the Screaming Cheetah Wheelies who go by the names Lars and Anders, our rambunctious sons who try our patience daily but also fill our lives with so much joy that we wouldn't trade them for the world.

Those are the Big Blessings, but honestly, what I was most thankful for this Thanksgiving was Grampa's In-House Catering Service!  Since Bernie has been traveling so much for work this month, and I was busy working on a design project for a new client on top of my responsibilities as Chauffeur, Algebra Tutor, Science Project Supervisor, and Keeper of the Video Games for the two princelings, I just didn't have the time or energy for the weeks of cooking necessitated by our traditional Thanksgiving dinner menu.  Then, to make matters worse, Bernie stumbled and fell on the stairs last week, spraining his ankle pretty badly, so he was on crutches and unable to fulfil his usual role as Thanksgiving Sous Chef.  My father, who is himself recovering from shoulder surgery, came to the rescue.  Bernie managed to do a remarkable job cleaning our house with a crutch under one arm, pushing the vacuum cleaner with the other, and laid out roasting pans and other equipment.  I set the dining room table, decapitated some roses and arranged them in a bowl for a centerpeice, and my parents showed up on Thanksgiving morning with a completely prepped Thanksgiving meal to cook in my ovens: turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and green bean casserole.  I had made my Cranberry Citrus Compote and Cinnamon Molasses Pumpkin Pies ahead of time and stocked up on champagne and our favorite pinot noir, and my mother made the gravy, so we managed to pull off a decent Thanksgiving feast between the four of us.  Dad's apple cider brined turkey was delicious, and all the tastier because I didn't have to fret over it myself.  Thanks for coming to the rescue, Dad!  :-)

Photo Shamelessly Stolen from SewCalGal

This was the most relaxing Thanksgiving Day I've had in a long time.  I even managed to sneak upstairs to my sewing room to whip up another Dresden Plate while everyone else was watching the Westminster Dog Show downstairs.  Which is why, when I saw this adorable quilted turkey with Dresden Plate tail feathers on SewCalGal's Thanksgiving post, I had to snatch it for myself.  By the way, Darlene -- as I'm counting my blessings, you're on the list.  Thank you so much for your 2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge.  I know you have put a lot of work into organizing and hosting this year-long event on your blog, lining up expert quilters, sponsors and prizes, and getting the tutorials and winners posted each month.  I am amazed by how much my FMQ skills have improved, just by spending one day each month practicing a new technique.  Thank you for bringing this community of quilters together from all over the world to inspire and encourage one another!



My Dresden Plate, One of Eight

As of right now, I have 7 Dresden Plates pieced, and I just need to assemble one more before I get out my embroidery module and machine-applique the red flower centers to all of the blocks (using Marjorie Busby's fabulous embroidery design for Accuquilt precuts). 



Rose Dream Block from the Kansas City Star, click here for Tutorial

The plan is to alternate Dresden Plate blocks with the vintage Rose Dream block that the lovely, talented, and unbelievably generous Charise of Charise Creates was sweet enough to redraft as a 14" block for me, just so it would work for this Dresden Plate quilt.  Charise, I'm thankful for you, too -- and can't wait to see what other challenging and unusual blocks you'll be sharing in your Vintage Block QAL in the coming months. 

The Rose Dream block was published in the Kansas City Star in 1930, around the same time that Dresden Plate quilts were most popular, so I feel like the two blocks make sense together historically.  The curved piecing looks just a bit more challenging than the drunkard's path blocks I mastered for Lars's Drunken Dragons quilt, and I feel like the combination of curved lines and pointy little squares will be a nice complement to the pointed edges on my Dresden Plates.  I've traced Charise's enlarged pattern pieces onto template plastic and carefully cut them out, but I haven't cut any fabric for these blocks yet.  I'm still considering different options for the background fabrics in this quilt, and I think I'm going to use one of my software programs to audition a few alternatives before I make a commitment.  I don't have any of the dedicated quilting software programs like EQ7, and I don't have the ability to create a new block design in the quilt design function of my Bernina Artista embroidery design software (and there's no way this Rose Dream block would be one of the block designs in the software's design library.  However, I think I will be able to use my Minutes Matter Studio interior design software program to do some mock-ups for this quilt, since I can draw any shapes I want, fill them with fabrics, and import, crop, and duplicate photos in Studio.  I'll let you know how that works out.

Meanwhile, my hallway is piled high with boxes of Christmas decorations, and my family is chomping at the bit to haul out the holly and decorate Christmas trees.  Lars and Anders have even been cleaning their bedrooms, with actual cleaning products, because Bernie told them he wasn't going to set foot in the LEGO store this year unless they could put away all of the LEGOs they already own.  Who ARE these whirling dervishes of bedroom cleaning, and what have they done with my sons?!

Whatever you're up to this weekend, whether it's holiday decorating, shopping, or just relaxing and enjoying leftover turkey, I hope you have a chance to reflect on your blessings and spend time with your loved ones.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Belated FMQ Challenge from January: Frances Moore

My Belated January FMQ Challenge

I actually watched Frances Moore's January YouTube video tutorial for the SewCalGal 2012 Free Motion Quilting Challenge several months ago, and I've attempted this leafy vine motif several times in the past.  At this point, I've just sort of accepted that this particular design is not my thing, but I'm committed to completing all twelve challenges by the end of the year, so today I got out some pretty blue-flowered fabric, rolled up my sleeves, and made up my mind to do the best with it that I could.  

A few points of interest for this month's tutorial: Frances quilts without using any frames, hoops, special quilting gloves, or stitch regulators.  She suggested using a heavier 40 weight thread for this design with a 90/14 Topstitching needle and a lighter 50 weight thread in the bobbin.  When I first watched this tutorial a few months ago, I emailed Frances and asked for more details about how she quilts so successfully without the obnoxious sweaty gloves that everyone else is using -- can you tell I hate wearing gloves?! -- and she wrote back that she rubs a few drops of pure glycerin into the skin of her palms and fingertips to get them just tacky enough to to grip her quilt without needing to wear rubber gloves.  I have tried several different brands of gloves that other quilters rave about and have loathed them all, finding them cumbersome, uncomfortable, and sweaty, so I sent my darling husband out to CVS for the glycerin.  The people who worked at the drug store were not aware that they stocked it, but Bernie eventually found a little bottle of CVS brand glycerine for a couple of dollars and, for me at least, this magic sticky potion does the trick.  I am so grateful to Frances for sharing that trick with me!

What I SHOULD have done!

One of the reasons I selected this fabric for this particular quilting design was that the shape of the blue flower petals is so similar to the leaf shape I was trying to quilt.  In looking at what other challenge participants had done with this motif, as well as how Frances has used it in her own work, I had decided that the leafy vine quilting design was most effective on projects that had a tree or flower theme.  As I worked my way through my own sample, I was discouraged as I began to realize that my all-over quilting design looked like scribbles and was detracting from the fabric pattern rather than enhancing it.  Not until I had almost completely quilted my 15" x 15" practice piece did I realize that it would have looked a lot better if I had outline-quilted the flowers printed on the fabric, and quilted the leavy vines in the spaces between the flowers.  Unfortunately, by the time I had this epiphany I only had one little flower left to test it on, at the very corner of my sample.  You can see it on the left in the photo above.  Much better, right?  That way the leaves complement the flowers instead of fighting them.  Woulda, shoulda, coulda!  I'll keep that in mind for next time, for sure.  I wish I had enough of that fabric left to do a do-over!  

As for Frances' other suggestions: I don't ever quilt with a hoop (unless it's attached to an embroidery module, heh heh!) so that one was easy.  I switched back and forth for this exercise between using my Free Motion foot #24, like what Frances uses, and using my open-toed BSR (Bernina Stitch Regulator) foot.  It's good to know that I CAN quilt without stitch regulation if I need to (I didn't use it at all on Lars's Drunken Dragons quilt), but it REALLY is so much easier to learn a new design when I can just focus on "drawing" without having to also think about coordinating the machine speed with the speed of my hands to keep my stitch length even.  Also, I paid a lot of money for my fancy gadgetry upgrade, so I might as well use it!

Bob the Builder on the Back Side: Different Bobbin Threads

I did use the 40 weight thread in the needle (mine was YLI 40 wt Machine Quilting thread) with  a 50 weight thread in the bobbin (I used a turquoise shade of Gütermann cotton thread in my bobbin), and I used a 90/14 Topstitching needle, all Frances' recommendations.  I struggled to get my tension just right using that combination, though, and I ended up putting the same YLI 40 wt thread in the bobbon towards the end -- which instantly improved the look of the back of my quilt sample.  For one thing, I prefer the look of a longer stitch length when I'm using a heavier thread and a shorter stitch length with a very fine thread.  When I use a lighter thread in the bobbin, I just don't like the overall effect from the back side.  

So, there you have it, Folks!  Another FMQ challenge completed.  I still have four more months to make up in addition to the new challenges that will be posted in November and in December.  I want to thank Frances Moore for sharing this tutorial, and SewCalGal for hosting the whole shebang.  

October FMQ Challenge with Teri Lucas

October FMQ Challenge Piece, 15" x 15" Silk Taffeta with Double Batting

I just finished my free-motion quilting sample for the October tutorial on SewCalGal's blog.  Although this is the 10th month in the 2012 Free Motion Quilting Challenge, I still have several months that I need to make up in order to get all 12 finished before the end of the year.  I have to say, I really am seeing huge improvement each month.

This month's tutorial was courtesy of the very talented quilter Teri Lucas.  Some of the interesting twists for the October challenge were:

• Teri suggested a silk or silk/cotton blend fabric for the sample instead of a quilting weight cotton.  I found a yummy scrap of terra cotta silk taffeta that was leftover from a client's drapery project years ago, so that's what I used for the challenge. 
• I almost missed this, but Teri directed us to put TWO layers of batting in this quilt sandwich, a bamboo or needle-punched low-loft polyester batting closest to our backing fabric, and a layer of wool or silk batting on top of that, just beneath the silk fabric.  I found some thin Mountain Mist poly batting and layered Hobbs Tuscany Silk batting on top of that.  I attempted to baste this much-thicker-than-usual sandwich with safety pins, but that was a disaster -- I ended up using 505 Temporary Spray Adhesive between each layer to prevent shifting and distortion.
• Teri also wanted us to play with different threads, which I don't normally do.  Since the silk fabric had a sheen, I decided to experiment with a box of forgotten Sulky rayon 40 weight embroidery thread.  I used the same thread in the needle and in the bobbin, and reduced my upper thread tension down to 1.5 in order to get a nice, balanced stitch on both sides of my quilt sandwich.

Pebbles, Nautilus Shells, and Feather-Like Leafed Thingys

I practiced several motifs that were new to me, like the nautilus shells, pebbling, and the feathery leafy thingys.  Oh, and notice how nice and even my tiny little stitches are?  I have finally gotten comfortable with the "laser" powered Bernina Stitch Regulator (BSR) on my Artista 200E/730E sewing machine.  I set my stitch length to 1.8 and worked slowly, and had no problems whatsoever.  The laser actually counts fabric threads as I move the fabric beneath the needle so the computerized machine can speed up or slow down the needle speed as necessary to maintain that even stitch length.  Pretty cool!

Meandering, Jester Hats, Feather-Like Objects and Today's Date

I also worked on improving a couple of motifs that I'd attempted in the past but was never really satisfied with.  Today's meandering fill stitch (upper right area in the photo above) is the best I've ever done.

One last look:

Completed October Challenge, approximately 15" x 15"

Thank you, Teri, for sharing this wonderful tutorial with us!  It was a lot of fun.