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Monday, December 31, 2012

December Sew Cal Gal's FMQ Challenge

December Sew Cal Gal's FMQ Challenge Entry!
Wow, the last month of 2012 brings the final monthly challenge, and it was a difficult one.

This month's expert was Patsy Thompson, who, in addition to making beautiful quilts, does fantastic how-to videos. I have long been a fan of her website and blog. Her lesson for us was on borders.

Now, borders sound easy - they're so small, right? But these borders were freehand, and I found them difficult. I started, as usual, by drawing. Patsy provided us with some wonderful blanks to work on. Here are a few of my sketches.


I drew and drew, but the feathers really scared me. I find it really hard to get them to flow when I sew them. So I worked extra hard on the drawing.

Now it's New Year's Eve, and I have to sew, or I will miss the deadline on the 12th month, and so, in my mind at least, I would have failed the challenge. So I sat down at my machine and sewed. The feathers aren't as smooth as I would like, but they are so much better than they had been back in February. Here is my final monthly trial.
Close Up of Corner

Overall Project

Now I need to post my retrospective and enter both the monthly and the grand prize drawings. But I feel I've already won, because my quilting has improved so much! I'm so glad I stuck with this challenge.

1 comment:

  1. You should be quite successful in completely your goal of quilt gifts in the coming year. You have achieved so much and the stitching today even takes it to a higher level. Your quilting is definitely something to be proud of! Happy New Year! Hugs, Doreen

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