Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Free Motion Machine Quilting challenge

 
My internet friend and quilting mentor, Teri Lucas, is the guest teacher on this month's Free Motion Quilting Challenge at SewCalGal. I will admit that I have not been doing the monthly challenges, but have been inspired this month to try Teri's!
The first part of the challenge is draw out random quilt designs, starting with your name. Then you echo around your name. Then, without a ruler (or a safety net!!!) you do some cross hatching! Onto some clamshells, then let your imagination go wild! I was pretty satisfied with this.
Then to translate it to fabric. She suggests using a silky cotton fabric like Robert Kaufman's Radiance. I happened to have some in my stash. I used a batik for a backing, and I had some silk batting that I used. She suggested using a number of different thread types and colours to get a feel for look and tension. I ended up using Superior Threads' King Tut, Kimono Silk, Highlights, Rainbows, Magnifico, Signature Thread, and Quilter's Choice by Golden Threads. The challenge is to do this on your domestic machine, but I decided to do mine on my HandiQuilter Sweet Sixteen as this is where I intend to do the lion's share of my quilting.
GRRR!!! First mistake, I misspell my own name!!! But the stitching was going so well, that I elected to leave it in, just to keep me humble. This was a great exercise, and I can see that I am improving, although I still need lots more practice to get to where I want to be!

11 comments:

  1. Your quilting looks wonderful Maggie!!

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  2. Good job! Your name just adds to the whimsy of the piece.

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  3. I was just thinking about you the other day and wondering if you were getting time on your Sweet Sixteen. That cracks me up that you misspelled your own name. The two times I've written on a quilt with a permanent marker, I misspelled the first word I wrote. GRRRR is right! But what a great practice piece! I think you are doing just swell. How fun!

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  4. Great work Mggie! I doodle with the same thoughts. Glad you're liking the Sweet 16, I'm just considering changing to one from the Avante 18.

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  5. wow, very beautiful I´m absolutely trilled ☺

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  6. Lol - I think it turned out great, misspelled or not! The combination of choices you made makes it looks really ocean-y to me!

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  7. How cool and what a fun way to experiment! I may try that myself! I like what you did and the radiance link! I was looking for that fabric too! Thanks!!!

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  8. Oh how cute that you mispelled your own name! :-). I love your string of pebble pearls and your feathers. Beautiful work!

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