The Challenge - January's Entry

In her newsletter, Cindy Needham mentioned a wonderful opportunity for FMQ practice - a Challenge by SewCalGal.



You can read about the Challenge here. Anyway, it did seem to be a great way to learn more about FMQ and get some practice, so I took the pledge and started off the new year viewing the first tutorial, which was a lovely leaf pattern by Frances Moore.

After viewing the tutorial several times to get the feel of the pattern, I started by drawing it over and over. I drew this pattern for the first week or so. I wanted to get it into my brain first, then into my hands, hoping it would then come out more easily when sewing. Here's a sample of my drawing:

Early, somewhat messy drawing.

Later Drawing. Getting better!

 

 

So, after drawing for a time, I decided to take a deep breath, drop my feed dogs and have at it! I put a bright orange thread into my machine so that I could see the stitches and started out. Here's a sample of that first trial:

Pretty jerky and not very well formed. Hard to believe all that drawing and this was what came out at the start. I do tend to feel out of control a lot when FMQ, hence the need for practice! After several more attempts,and much more drawing on paper, my most recent pattern looks like this:

Still not completely smooth, but much better, I think. I just need to keep practicing. I am having fun with this, just wish I had more time!

So this is my first entry in the FMQ Challenge. Looking forward to next month's tutorial! Bring it on!