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Thursday, October 11, 2012

October Free Motion Quilting Challenge

   Doodle time.....Teri Lucas is the challenege expert this month at SewCalGal .  We had to do a paper doodle, beginning with our name and outlining, and then fill in the area.  I did the paper doodle, and moved on to fabric....experimenting with different colors and threads as she suggested.  I did not have silk fabric to experiment with, but did try some silk thread for part of this.
  The silk, for the name and outline, is very nice to stitch with.  I do not care for heavier threads--quilting weight 30 or 40--- the green thread on the left area.  It lays on top of the fabric almost and requires a slower speed for stitching.   Slower speed  leads to less than nice stitches.  It is not for me.
 I still dislike doing geometric type stitching.  'nuf said on that.

   But what I liked about this lesson was the last part that Teri shared.



   You can see part of her tutorial on the right in this photo.  She showed conch shells made from swirls!   I began doodling and drawing to understand how these babies developed.  By the fourth one I kind of had it figured out.....but my pebbles just look like a funny string of beads.
   The swirl needs to spiral in at least twice to get the shell look.  That seemed to be the key for me.  Then it is lots of close lines that connect to two parts of the spiral together.


    First attempt in fabric is not bad....I needed another round to the swirl I think.  I got to the end and got a little bit lost and was not sure where to go.    The fabric I used was a cotton sateen and the thread was isacord for the light grey.






  I switched to aurifil thread in the gold and practiced  the feathered swirls to finish off this  piece. This lesson  came together  for me when I added a few plumes off the side of the conch shell!  I really like the effect.

  Somethings you need to experiment with, play around, see what you like, etc.  We all know this, but do we take the time and make the effort to experiment.  I admit that I don't.  Yet I am really glad I did this time!
  If you haven't done the challenge yet,  click here  to give it a try.

  The sewing room looks like a hurricane came through!  Strings run amok.  Tiny pieces litter the floor like the leaves that are begining to fall.  And a pile of blocks to be trimmed show I have made progress.  I look forward to getting somewhere on this one.....soon.
Happy stitching.  

14 comments:

  1. When I read this challenge my first thought was, "Maybe this is the month I drop out. " : )
    You have done a beautiful job--makes me want to give it a try!

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  2. It al looks good to me. I have not practised at all since I took a FMQ class in January. After all, I have a quilting frame, why "waste" time practising FMQ when I could be really quilting (I don't, of course -- practise or quilt)!

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  3. I think the same hurricane came through my room....

    love your FMQ

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  4. The conch shells and plumes have such an elegant look to them, so pretty.

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  5. You did a really good job on this. I'm going to try mine today. I have a long name, and so I'm hoping I can fit it on a small piece of fabric.

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  6. This is great! I too need to practice more ,I want to make some pillows and small table tops so those would be good to practice on . Thank you for showing your machine quilting work .I love all your quilts !

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  7. This looks great - you've really gotten the hang of those conch shells. My drawn ones look abysmal, can't wait to see if the stitched ones will be any better. Soon ...

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  8. Looks great - I need to get going on this month's challenge.

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  9. Really like your free motion quilting. I am just starting and hope to learn as much as I can this winter. My friends and I went Thurs to a class. I did my first piece this afternoon. A mug rug. It didn't look to bad when I was finished. Now on to a bigger piece.

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  10. Your shells look really god, and I love your plumes. I still struggle with those, so I call mine FLOs -- feather-like objects!

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