Thursday, December 27, 2012

A Year of FMQ

SewCalGal hosted a wonderful challenge for 2012 to complete a monthly FMQ lesson.  She invited a wonderful and talented group of FMQ experts to share information and assign us a lesson.   I completed all 12!!

This month was to experiment with different border designs. 


I had a lot of fun with this small quilt.


Patsy Thompson posted this month's lesson.  Her video on making feathered borders is really good.   These were so much fun to make.  My choice of the variegated thread turned out to be a design element!

Not quite a mirror image but then, not bad for my first try.

What did I learn from a full year of challenges?


  1. FMQ is fun.   Singing some song over and over (for me anyway) is a great way to relax and get in the rhythm.  (Your a mean one Mr Grinch was stuck in my head as I did this one!)
  2. Feathers are fun and easier than they look - assuming you don't care about having a perfect feather.
  3. A good filler instead of stipple is the leaves (hearts).  It is easy to do and you don't end up stuck in an odd spot like I did with some of the other fillers.
  4. Practice does help!  (See, kids, mom was right!)
There are a few things I still need practice with especially deciding on the design and the thread choice is very hard for me.  I sit there staring at a blank canvas and can't figure it out.  

Thanks Darlene for a gathering today a wonderful set of guests to teach us.  Thanks to all the wonderful teachers who took time to share some basics with us beginner FMQers!

Happy Stitching!

4 comments:

  1. I love the leaf one too. It seemed like the minute I drew it, it was in my head! I combine the leaves with a looping line so it looks a bit like a vine. The looping line lets me get out of places I don't really want another leaf. You've done really well. I didn't do all the tutorials but I have done a lot more free motion on my quilts this year. I love it now!

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  2. Way to go doing all 12 lessons! Your fmq is an inspiration to everyone!

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  3. Hear, Hear! It was a wonderful way to improve my so near beginning quilting skill. I didn't get all of them done, but each one helped to build my courage to keep quilting.

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  4. Congratulations on reaching your goal of all 12 challenges! Great samples, and we've all had a great time learning FMQ together. Sure wish it could go on for another year, but at least we'll have our facebook group to continue sharing. Happy Holidays!

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