The Free Motion Quilting Project: Week #6

Directions for Week 6: Quilting in Sashing and borders

This is a terrific lesson - I must remember to rewatch it when I have a quilt with different blocks it in with sashing and borders!  Leah has really a knack for breaking down what we need to consider when stitching.

I'm still doing a little catch up now so not really keeping to the weeks....  Unfortunately, I didn't have a quilt ready with sashings and borders so will do that part later, but for now I practiced more with following the line and filling in the space using the technique of doing a line of pattern in the center to the side then looping back to center to another side, etc.  Then filling the area in.

I finished filling in the rest of this practice sandwich. It also has some feathers and other things I was working on....

Here is the front

The back - first I followed the lines in the pattern.

The back - then I filled in all the space with stippling,
starting in the center then going out in quarters.

I think my scale is about 1/2 inch - I can't see myself doing larger scale yet.  During some of the sections this was going very smoothly - but in others the thread split so I had to stop and reset things up.  When the thread started splitting I turned the piece rather than sewing in different directions for the straight lines - that sort of helped.  I think I need to rig up a different way to feed the thread to the machine - having the spool in a cup I can feel the cone bump the side and then the tension gets messed up.

Front new practice sandwich!

Originally I was thinking I was just going to skip to quilting an entire quilt - but now I'm stepping it back and practicing some more on smaller pieces.  I need the practice that's for sure.

My new pinmores arrived from DayStyle Design and I wanted to try them out!  They were so much easier and nicer to use than safety pins.  I recommend them and I recommend getting them from Leah Day. I checked the prices and Leah's end up being lower than the other sites I checked out.

It takes me forever to do FMQing sometimes.  I think this represents about 2 hours of my life!

Back new practice sandwich

In addition to more practice, I needed another sandwich so I could join the pieces together to make a fugly lap quilt that I will only have in the van to offer my mom if needed when we are going places (she is in wheelchair so a little quilt could be useful).  I started with green thread, then the bobbin ran out so I switched to the beige.  Makes the stitching really stand out on the back!