SewCalGal - FMQ Challenge - March

Directions for March Challenge (Squiggle, Squiggle with Stars or Hearts, Swirls, Flowers)

March

Ann Fahl - The tutorial will be made available only during the month of March 2012, per the requirement of Ann Fahl.

I'm working on this design as part of the SewCalGal 2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge.

This event will have a new designer and design each month - it will be open all year - so go to the SewCalGal site now to see the updates!

This month I drew the designs on papers in several different ways.  Once I had a combination that was pleasing to me I set up the practice sandwich and sewed the design.

I sewed on the dark patterned fabric, the pink fabric was on the back....  I had no idea how the green thread would be hidden on the front - even in person it's difficult to see!

Front of the sandwich

The stitching on the back shows up well....

Squiggle, Squiggle with Stars or Hearts, and Swirls in the Center of Flowers in this sample.

Back of sandwich with cake and drawn inspiration

We had my son's girlfriend over the dinner yesterday - made curried carrot soup for the first time.  I wasn't sure how good it was going to be so asked him to pick up a cake for dessert to round out the meal.  The cake he picked came decorated with flowers very like the ones in Ann's lesson!

My first sewn attempt at this was a complete failure - I hadn't drawn the design and thought I could skip that step.  I put the stitches in my sandwich so it would become part of my FMQAYGQAL so I used the seam ripper to remove those stitches.  When I do that again I will post the photo here. (I'm having trouble with taking photos so just skipped taking the failure photo - I just hadn't followed the pattern correctly.)


Notice I used thread basting - the first time I have done that.  Carolyn showed me how she thread basted so I thought I'd give it a try - it was real easy to do and since I made a frame with the basting I didn't have to remove any as I did this sample...  I'll be trying this again for other projects.


I'm using some batting that my new friend Becky got me from her long-arming friend Martine had left over from some of her projects.  I think it's polyester - it's softer and finer than any batting I have used before! (Neither of them have quilting blogs.)

You too can join up with the 2012 SewCalGal's Free-Motion Quilt Challenge now to become a better free motion quilter and have the chance to win fabulous prizes!!  

 To enter the March drawing:
1. Write blog entry or post a photo on Flicker. Copy and save the URL.
2. Then go to http://sewcalgal.blogspot.com/p/free-motion-quilt-challenge.html
3. Click on the March link - you'll go to the screen with information about the challenge for March. The direct link is: http://sewcalgal.blogspot.com/2012/03/march-2012-fmq-challenge-tutorial-by.html
4. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and add the link to your site.

I'm #139 on this list! I'm coding all my entries about this project with SewCalGalFMQ2012 so clicking on that will show the most recent post on top.