Monday, July 9, 2012

FMQ Leaves

I decided to take the plunge and try to free motion leaves in the border of this quilt. I chose the pattern from Leah Day's book, 365 Free Motion Quilting Designs. The name of this pattern is Mario Vines. It's considered to be a beginner design. I thought it was a nice step toward quilting feathers in the future. 

My first few leaves looked okay but my machine was not cooperating. I broke two needles until I figured out that my thread was looping around the thread stand incorrectly. So aggravating! I re-thread the machine and it worked fine. I tried to keep my leaves about the same size and also tried to keep the spacing consistent between the leaves. I know I could have made little marks but I really wanted to try this free hand. I also had to keep in mind that the outer border was going to have a binding attached to it and I was going to lose 1/4 inch of the space.

I feel that I learned a lot. I have a Supreme Slider but never really liked it before. I used it today and thought it was wonderful! My first few leaves felt as though it was tough to move the quilt but the Supreme Slider was great. It really helped my quilt to move so easily. I also used Magic Bobbin Washers. It's supposed to make the bobbin move very easily. I had no problems with the bobbin at all.

I learned that if I stop, I have to stop the machine also or else you get this nice little build up of thread.  It's not noticeable to the non-quilter, but I can see it! That stopped about 1/3 of the way around. Quilting is easier if your hands move with your quilt. Not sure if I paid attention to that in the past. I did today and I felt more in control if my hands were closer to the area I was quilting. No leaves are identical but I think that's also true in nature so I didn't get too worried about it! Free motion quilting is fast! I think it took a little over an hour to get all four borders completed. I felt like I really accomplished a lot today.

My binding has been sewn on. Time to hand sew the binding down. I may try that by machine next time. I didn't want to press my luck after having such a good day sewing today!

22 comments:

  1. Looks great, Rosemary! You'll be doing those feathers in no time.

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  2. The leaves look great! Not sure I had managed that well. My progress is from meandering to loops - lol.

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    1. I have a hard time with loops because you're supposed to not cross thread with meandering and I get confused!! Thanks for the nice words!

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  3. Well done with the quilting - it looks great!

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  4. Awesome, Rosemary! Glad to hear you had a good sewing day! Looks like you are close to the finish line with this one. That is such a great feeling:)

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    1. Finishing a project is wonderful! Thanks for the encouragement!

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  5. Brave lady you have done an awsome job
    Cheers Pauline

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    1. Pauline, thank you! So nice to hear such kind words!

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  6. I think you did a great job and I must say that your leaves look fairly consistent to me.

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    1. Thanks, Karin, I was trying to keep everything fairly even. So much to think of!

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  7. You were very brave to put the quilt in the machine when trying something new. It really turned out well. Congratulations on the great finish!

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    1. It was very difficult getting the machine quilting going. I didn't want to ruin what I had done but I just had to do it. Thanks!

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  8. That looks great, Rosemary! You'll be doing feathers soon!

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    1. Thanks, Sharon! I still find feathers sort of scary but one of these days I'll tackle them!

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  9. Like everyone said, you're brave to have your first try on an actual quilt! And you did a fantastic job at it! Well done, Rosemary.

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    1. Thank you so much, Farah! Love hearing all of these wonderful comments!

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  10. Hi Rosemary, I like what you are doing with the quilting..I haven't heard of a Supreme Slider down here..how does it work????

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    1. Thanks, Lyn. It is a very slippery sheet of plastic. It reminds me of teflon. Whatever you're quilting moves quite easily while you are machine quilting it.

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  11. Hey Rosemary way to jump into it! It looks so good (like I want to do that in one of my boarders)! Keep that little FMQ fire burning and you will be a pro.

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I Like Thursday #228

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