March Entry Quilt Shop Gal FMQ Challenge

It's March (the bitter end - and it's been bitter here... brrr!); time for an entry in Darlene at Quilt Shop Gal's FMQ Challenge.

This month Patsy Thompson was the expert. I love Patsy's beautiful and colorful hyperquilting, so I really didn't want to miss this one. Since I had already bought her Craftsy class and watched it all, I decided to go for Option 2, which was to use the techniques from that class in a quilted pillow.

It has been really cold and dreary here. Spring hasn't really arrived yet, and somehow I just couldn't bring myself to use those bright, beautiful colors. I had done January's challenge in black and white, so I thought I would use a similar color scheme, but this time I'd use a black background and white and gray and metallic gold threads for the high contrast look of hyperquilting. Here is the result.

Finished March Pillow

The center feathered wreath was trapunto done with a thread that dissolves in water, which was new for me, but not too difficult. I simply sewed the extra layer of batting to the quilt top, cut away the excess batting in the back, then layered my usual quilt sandwich. Here are a few photos to illustrate.

The Vanish Lite (soluble thread) goes in the top thread, then sew the outline of the trapunto area.

From the back; trimming away the extra batting. After this, I added the regular layer of batting and a plain muslin backing.

Once I had the complete quilt sandwich, I could quilt as usual, sort of. I haven't been quilting much lately - overstretched my hand and it hurts, but I remembered something I had won in an earlier version of Darlene's FMQ Challenge, a set of Grip and Stitch Disks from Clever Craft Tools. You see, when I used my gloves, I tended to aggravate the sore hand, but resting my hands on the disks kept them in a neutral position that didn't hurt. I need more practice with them to get better control, but they do really grip the fabric, making it slide easily.

Grip and Stitch disks ready for quilting.

I quilted the wreath as usual. I then set about quilting the straight lines in the background. For this, I tried another Patsy Thompson suggestion, a short ruler made for FMQ. It kept my lines pretty straight, until I had to move the ruler. Again, a little practice should improve that. I think I could learn to really like using a ruler as a guide. (Note, this isn't the ruler you use for cutting fabric. It's much thicker so the presser foot can ride up against it as you quilt. See Patsy's website and You Tube videos for more details.)

The clear acrylic tool in the lower left corner is the quilting ruler. This one has handles to make it easier to use.

After I finished the usual quilting, I went back to add the hyperquilting, in my case, extra quilting in the feathers of the wreath. This is just some embellishment to add detail and complexity.

Adding Hyperquilting to the wreath.

After that, I turned it into a pillow, just as I did in January.

I'm going to link this up to the Quilt Shop Gal FMQ March Challenge site. Check it out; so many beautiful pillows this month! Thanks, Darlene and Patsy for the great inspiration. I used a lot of new things this time around that I wouldn't even have known about if it hadn't been for the two of you! You're both the greatest!

1,2,3! January 2015 FMQ Challenge with Quilt Shop Gal

If you've been following these posts, you know I started this blog to enter the Free Motion Quilting (FMQ) Challenge form Sew Cal Gal, first offered in 2012.  I had just started learning FMQ, and that Challenge provided so many ideas and opportunities for practice, that it has made it possible for me to quilt my own quilts on my domestic sewing machine and do much better quilting than ever before.

It's now 2015, Sew Cal Gal has become Darlene at Quilt Shop Gal, she has a new FMQ Challenge, and this one is really going to be fun! If you are a beginner like I was in 2012, this is a great opportunity to learn FMQ. For me, I'm not an expert yet, so I really look forward to learning more techniques and new patterns and getting lots more practice! There will be a new challenge each month with guest instructors/experts to guide the challenges, just as there were in 2012. Hooray!

Let the Challenge Begin!

For the January challenge, we are making a heart-themed pillow with  three options:
1. Using patterns from Molly Hanson's book "Free Motion Quilting for Beginners", make a pillow using her FMQ motifs.
2. Make and quilt a pillow using Francis Moore's swirl in a heart motif.
3. Make and quilt a pillow using Lu Ann Kessi's heart motif filled with feathers.

I tried to combine all three options in my entry.

January Entry

I began by sketching the design ideas on paper, then making a freezer paper template of a heart, which I traced on my fabric. I added the curves for the feather spines at this point as well, which I drew in freehand. I wanted to use an idea from a Cindy Needham Craftsy class - divide and conquer - for the background, so I used a ruler to put in some radiating lines on and around the diagonals. Because I really wanted those feathers to pop, I cut an extra layer of wool batting into a heart shape using my template, and stuck that to the back of the top fabric with gluestick right under the central heart motif so that it would give a trapunto effect. Then I sandwiched it with more wool batting and a backing.

Ready to quilt.

I started in the middle with the feathered heart, then quilted the radiating lines. Next I added a paisley design from Molly Hanson's book down the middle of each of the background sections, then filled in with a combination of Molly Hanson's loop and words and Francis Moore's heart and swirl motif. Of course I practiced all of these on paper for several days before even trying to stitch them. I have found that sketching and doodling is the best thing for getting that muscle memory developed.

Cenral Heart - Lu Ann Kessi's motif
Option 3

Radiating lines - Cindy Needham Craftsy Class

Paisley motif - Molly Hanson's motif
Option 1

Combination: Loop with words Molly Hanson's
 & heart with swirl - Francis Moore's motif
Options 1&2

Once the pillow top was quilted, I needed to make a pillow of it. I used the directions in Molly Hanson's book to make my black and white heart themed pillow form with black binding.

Pillow back.

I'm linking this up at Quilt Shop Gal's 2015 FMQ Challenge for January. Be sure to check the other entries - they are great! And enter yourself - there are some great prizes offered, and they are awarded by the luck of the draw form entries, so you don't have to be an expert to win - beginners have an equal chance!