It feels a bit like I’m living in the land of Quilt OCD over
here. Over the past few weeks I’ve been
trying to finish off two big projects at once while simultaneously starting to
dip my toes into dressmaking for grownups.
But the quilts…the quilts!
After finishing up my tilted star alphabet quilt top, I knew
exactly how I wanted to quilt it with a mix of free motioning quilting and hand
quilting. I love this top and have never
tried to free motion on anything larger than a quilt sandwich before, so I knew
that I couldn’t dive right into it without practicing on something first. My main fear about free motion quilting is
that I’m so green with it, I don’t want to totally screw up a quilt top for the
sake of practice. What do to??
So I dipped into the WIP pile and came across this – my black and white broken herringbone top. I was
in a rush to finish it to participate in the MSBHQAL a while back with the
intention of adding an extra column and 2 rows to make it more lap sized. As it stands right now, it’s more of a
generous crib size. Somehow making the
extra blocks just fell to the side as I worked on the feather top, Little One, Mon Amie, and other assorted projects in the past 6 months. I still really like it as a quilt top, but I
have to say that I’m a little more in love with the individual quilt blocks
than the top as a whole. Has that ever
happened to you? Long story short – it’s
a finished quilt top that I’m not super invested in and already had backing
fabric for. Hello practice quilt
top!
Months ago, I signed up for Elizabeth Dackson’s FMQ Craftsy class and am just now getting around to watching the videos. They are fantastic - it's really helpful to see how she's moving the fabric around instead of just reading a tutorial online.
When I first attempted FMQing with my On the Boardwalk mini, I bought a BigFoot for my machine and really struggled. I found that the large plastic disk really
obstructed my view of where I should be
going and it felt like I was trying to quilt blind. Seems like you should be able to clearly see through the plastic, but maybe there was glare from the machine's light? I don't know but it just wasn't working for me. I went out and purchased a generic darning
foot which looks more like what I’ve seen Elizabeth use in her videos and boy
did it make a big difference! I feel like I can really see what I'm doing now.
 |
| Generic darning foot on the left and the BigFoot on the right |
I’m still struggling with matching the speed from my foot
pedal with moving the fabric around, but I feel like I’m getting a better
handle on things as I work through this one!
My plan is to keep it simple stupid and just move back and forth through
each block with curliques in the black and white sections. It’s still looking pretty sloppy, but I think
I’m getting better! Once I make my way
through the black and white quilt, I’ll feel more confident to try something
only slightly more difficult on the tilted stars.
Linking up:
It looks really good!! The best way to practice is actually on quilts so have fun!
ReplyDeleteOne thing I do, that might help, is I actually quilt backwards - I move the quilt from behind the machine to the front. This way I can see what's already happened, and I'm not blindly hoping my stitches don't overlap the previous ones. It especially helped on that recent swap. :D
ReplyDeleteGood call on the backwards thing! And curlicues are great anyway, because a little overlap isn't very obvious.
DeleteGloves are helpful too. They give you a little extra grip that helps you feel more in control of where the quilt is going. I have a plain pair of gardening gloves with the little nubby rubber bits on them.
Good luck! It'll be great!
Oh, it looks great! And it really is the best sort of practice! Good luck! :)
ReplyDeleteIt looks great! I always remind myself that the imperfections make each quilt special and provide a touch of whimsy!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations for jumping in on FMQ'ing! It can be so much fun (and so frustrating at times!) but the key thing is that it is a wonderful feeling to take a quilt from beginning to end!
ReplyDeleteIt's going to be a cute top and the bonus of fairly busy fabric is any imperfections in the FMQ will get hidden. Way to go! I use a dollar store pair of gardening gloves, it helps immensely. Elizabeth Hartman has some good FMQ tips too on the MQG blog here http://themodernquiltguild.wordpress.com/2012/04/08/100-days-week-of-quilting-tips-for-free-motion-quilting-a-larger-quilt/
ReplyDeleteI'm in love with this;-) The key to FMQ really is just practice, practice, practice... and it always takes me way longer than I think it should!
ReplyDeleteLooks great, Stephanie. Coordinating the speed of the needle with the moving of the quilt is the most difficult part. I like to practice on baby quilts. Sending them through the washer and dryer hides all kinds of problems.
ReplyDeleteI love the black and white with a pop of colour. Your interpretation of this quilt pattern is fabulous.
ReplyDelete