My quilting thoughts and inspirations sprinkled with a glimpse of life down on the farm

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Filling in.... (fmq)

A tutorial I was behind in for the SewCalGal fmq challenge was the June tutorial by Cindy Needham. Happily I have remedied that (and here is the post to prove it!).
She covered so many areas; as well as the technique she had us practise, she encouraged us to find the comfortable fmq-ing rhythm of our machine, discussed starting and ending techniques and an in-depth guide to designs. In fact I enjoyed Cindy's tutorial so much that I jumped when I saw she was doing a class on Craftsy.
However I feel that I have not done Cindy's excellent tutorial justice. I learnt a lot but my piece looks like a dog's breakfast!!!
She had us take a block and 'divide and conquer' it!! We divided the block up with some swirly lines and then filled in the areas with different fillers.
Boy have I done this - but I went a bit OTT and micro-quilting really seemed to happen...my block is full of LOTS of tiny little areas of this and that.
However I enjoyed playing with the different threads and fillers as encouraged by Cindy, and this block is a good reference point for ideas in the future!!
The quilting all looks fairly messy, I assure you it's not quite so bad in real life!!
(The photos are all of the same block, just taken in different lights).
I borrowed an idea from the Teri Lucas(October) tutorial and quilted
'fmq challenge 2012' in the block.
Playing with ideas (and different threads).
I quite like this 'leaf'. Learning to fill spaces was invaluable.
Oh I love feathers; anywhere, anyhow!!
This photo shows the variety of threads and stitches used
and the textures achieved.
This was a really great practice piece. It has good bits and bad bits but is full of information for my future quilting. And I liked how we divided areas up to make them more achievable. Thank you to Cindy for all her information (a lot more than I have shown here) and also again to SewCalGal for hosting the challenge.

{I have now updated my FMQ Challenge 2012 page to include snippets from each tutorial throughout this challenge). 

Happy sewing everyone!!

10 comments:

  1. I remember getting really small with my designs on this challenge, too. Looks like you did a great job, Raewyn! NOT a dog's breakfast!! : )

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  2. You are certainly not a gal to shy away from a challenge! Your FMQ'ing is looking fabulous. Can't wait to see more....
    Wishing you a very creative 2013!

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  3. Awesome!! do you know if any blogger is hosting another challenge for 2013 like this one? I'm feeling ready to "post" about my fmq - and ready to get better!!

    Happy, Happy, Happy New Year!!

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  4. I am in awe!

    Happy, Happy and Healthy New Year!

    Cheers!

    Jeanneke.

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  5. That looks increadably good, Raewyn! My compliments!

    Have a good end of the year and a happy and sound 2013!
    Love, Cisca

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  6. great job! this one was fun to do.

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  7. Excellent, Raewyn. And I'm wondering the same thing as other commenters. Do you know of anyone doing a similar challenge as this in the New Year?

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  8. Great going Raewyn - good to know you have made it to the finish. Its a difficult time of the year for special projects.. Happy New Year to you, from a hot (very hot)and sultry Perth.

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