A Little More Free-Motion Quilting

It's the last day of the month in the evening.  How's that for leaving it to the last minute.  I love how swirls look when quilted.  I like the puff that the rounded areas create throughout a background.  I especially like it when it is done with a tighter pattern and small circles pop out here and there.  The Jester's Hat that Wendy Sheppard taught for this month's challenge hosted by SewCalGal has that kind of pattern.   Here are a couple of practice doodles I created using the Jester's Hat motif.

My earlier doodles included more swirls than hat tips.

I started getting the hang of the hat with leaves in the center.

I found it a little difficult to quilt evenly.  This will take a little more practice.

I really enjoy reading Wendy Sheppard's blog called Ivory Spring.  She has some great tutorials.  Thank you Wendy and SewCalGal for hosting these tutorials.

August FMQ Challenge

Wendy Sheppard of Ivory Spring is the tutor for the month of August in Sew Cal Gal's Free-Motion Quilting Challenge.  In this challenge, Wendy shows how to create a Jester's Hat design with a leaf icon added.  Here are a couple of practice doodles that I created a while ago.  Love how smooth this is to do.  It feels very natural.

I used this design for the background on my Billie Holiday piece and added some leaves and musical notes.  I used Coats and Clark Dual Duty for the top and bobbin so that I wouldn't get any pop up showing on the dark background fabric.  The thread colour is dark green.  I was going to use a dark grey or black to match the background but I thought that if it blends in too well, I won't be able to see where I am going as I stitch.

Jester's Hat with leaves and feathers added.

Can you spot the musical notes symbols?

This was so fun to stitch.  Since I completed this quilting a couple months before August, I won't be able to submit it for the challenge, but it fits in so well with the techniques that Wendy teaches and it's nice to see adaptations.  See what everyone else is doing for August at Sewcalgal.

Feather Plume with a Spine

Way back in February this year, Diane Gaudynski gave a tutorial at Sewcalgal's website.  She gave incredibly detailed instructions about how to form a free-motion plume with a spine.  I entered my small sample that is based on her tutorial in the local quilt show.  Although it didn't get a ribbon, it did get attention from other quilters.  I hope to tackle another whole-cloth quilt like this in a larger format with more elements.  I really liked using the silk thread on the blue portion of this piece.  Here are some close up pictures.  Enlarge them even more by clicking on them.  Can you tell that the brown quilting isn't silk?  I sure could when I was working with it.

The background quilting really does give it a sense of movement.  I named it "Grow" since that is my mission this year with free-motion quilting.  In June, Cindy Needham will be the tutor at the challenge hosted by Sewcalgal.  I'm really looking forward to her lessons as well.

Playing With Background Fills

I finally quilted some of my doodles onto fabric.  Thank you Ann Fahl for your inspirational tutorial hosted by SewCalGal.  I decided to divide up the space on the fabric with small channels and create designs within the spaces.  Often, background designs need to fit around and within other elements.  This helped me to practice quilting various designs with a little backtracking within a defined space.

Some March doodles.

Thread doodles.

I used King Tut thread, 40 weight, 3 ply, with 50 weight Coats and Clark in the bobbin.  I used the 90/14 topstitch needle that was recommended on the King Tut label.  I'm seeing just how important it is to have samples like this to test tension and threads on a regular basis and as a reminder of designs.

March Doodles

I borrowed Ann Fahl's book from the local Quilt Guild.  She includes very detailed information about thread sketching as well as thread quilting.  I'm looking forward to playing with some of her techniques.

Throughout March, I've been practicing a variety of doodles that would work for background fills.  Soon, I will combine some of the information from the book and information from Ann Fahl's tutorial on SewCalGal's blog to create a sampler.

Now, on to a few more doodles.

A Finish

Late last night, I completed the last stitch on this little whole-cloth quilt.  I really enjoyed working on this.  It's the right size for thorough and sustained practice but not too overwhelming.  Thank you to Diane Gaudynski for her tutorial on how to create feathers with an echo and for her images of an echoed background.  Thank you as well to SewCalGal for hosting the challenges.  I look forward to the March challenge.

When I had created the spine, my echoing was a little uneven, but once I added the feathers, it became impossible to see where the spine narrows and widens.  I still find echoing the outside of the feathers very challenging, but I'm determined to continue practicing.  Now, on the the March challenge with Ann Fahl.