Free Motion Mavericks - Week 31 - Two Finished Samplers

Two quick finishes this week - the binding and hanging sleeves are now on two A4 thread samplers. The pink and soft purple shades of the candles have been brought to life with binding the colour of raspberry blancmange...

... and the third of the leaf samplers is now bound in a very sensible shade of school uniform dark green.

Here goes for week 31...

Firstly, many thanks to Cynthia,  Marly,  Hilary,  Gwyned,  Quilt Musings,  Leanne and  Quilting Reader's Garden for linking up last time.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post and/or grab the linky button for your blog's sidebar.
  .
3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for four days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Monday.

So far quilters from USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand and France have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Linking up with Kelly's blog My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday
and Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday 
and Amanda Jean's blog Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday.

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 27 - More Leaves

Here is the latest leaf sampler, and I have to confess I am getting a bit bored - I hope you aren't too. It hasn't got the binding on yet, but I have taken the photo with the dark green that I shall be using in the background so you can get the idea.

There is a distinct lack of inspiration here at the moment, with energy being used up in all directions except sewing.  Here is one of the reasons:-

I have been busy digging, and had to put in plenty of hours over the Christmas and New Year holidays to get my allotment in order.  I'm not complaining - in fact, after the months of misery with a frozen shoulder last year it is a minor miracle that I have managed it.

Meanwhile, domestic creativity is being channelled into cakes.  Fancy making some jam muffins? Too easy to be true.

Here goes for week 27...

Many thanks to Maartje, Hilary, Judy, Gwyned, Barbara, Janine, LeeAnna, Linda  and Quilt Musings for linking up last time.  

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

Or, because it is still January, link up to show your favourite FMQ project finished in 2014.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post and/or grab the linky button for your blog's sidebar.
  .
3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for four days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Monday.

So far quilters from USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand and France have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Linking up with Kelly's blog My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday
and Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday.

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 26 - Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  I hope everyone has enjoyed the Christmas and New Year holiday, and that you are all looking forward to interesting FMQ projects in 2015!

Over the holiday I did hardly any sewing, but I did do one little thread sampler with a Christmas theme.  I have to thank Marly for the inspiration - her photo of the candles on her Christmas table runner gave me the idea.

So here it is, not bound yet, a sampler of five candles, with the colours fairly close to those of the candles on an Advent wreath.

Five candles, not four.

Anyway, enough of that nonsense, it's time for the first link up of the year.

Here goes for week 26...

Many thanks to Maartje, Marly and Gwyned for linking up last time.  

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

Or, if you prefer, link up to show your favourite FMQ project finished in 2014.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post and/or grab the linky button for your blog's sidebar.
  .
3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for four days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Monday.

So far quilters from USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand and France have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Linking up with Kelly's blog My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday
and Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday.

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 25 - A Sampler and An Exhibition

Now that I am on the third thread sampler I am trying to persuade myself that I am not getting ever so slightly bored.  However the daylight is so short, and often so dull, that inspiration is lacking for a new free motion landscape, so I am getting on with the thread samplers because they don't exactly tax the imagination.  When the next burst of creativity comes I will be able to choose colours by just referring to the samplers.

The great highlight of the last fortnight has been two visits to the exhibition of 12 x 12 quilts at Midsomer Quilting.  Here is just one of the quilts that was on show...

... Midnight in Moscow by Olga Cottle...

.

... which has a fascinating story attached to it.

The entire exhibition can now be seen on Midsomer Quilting's Flickr page.  Enjoy the show!

Here goes for week 25...

Many thanks to Maartje, Leanne, Beth, Carole and Linda for linking up last time.  

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post and/or grab the linky button for your blog's sidebar.
  .
3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for four days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Monday.

So far quilters from USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand and France have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Linking up with Kelly's blog My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday
and Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 24 - Another Sampler Finished

Here is the second thread sampler that I have made, a companion to the first, sampling eleven more shades of Gutermann's Sulky Cotton 30 variegated threads.

This coppery orange in the centre lifts the whole colour scheme.

I gave the leaves curly hooks around the edges, and was treadling away happily thinking that I might try out a design based on teasels...

... until the darker leaves jumped out at me and all I could think of was woodlice.

Oh well, can't win them all.  The colours are nice, though.  It is impossible to convey the subtlety of the shades in photographs.  In fact, at first I thought there wasn't enough contrast between the different threads used in the background, but once the chocolate brown binding was on, it looked a whole lot better.

Here goes for week 24...

Many thanks to Gwyned and Hilary for linking up last time.  

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post and/or grab the linky button for your blog's sidebar.
  .
3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for four days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Monday.

So far quilters from USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand and France have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Linking up with Kelly's blog My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday
and Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday
and Amanda Jean's blog Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday.

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 23 - Starting Another Sampler

Not an enormous amount of free motion quilting done this week, but at least I have made a start on my second sampler.  This is as far as I got this afternoon, and then the bobbin thread ran out, which was just as well because I had to go out.

On this close-up you can see how I mark the outlines before filling in with the parallel lines of quilting.  If you look very carefully at the edges of the leaves, and also down the centre of the rust coloured leaf and rising vertically from the tip, there is a machine stitched outline in ivory thread. Because it is the same colour as the calico background it blends in and can't be seen once the whole piece is finished.

Here goes for week 23...

First, a big welcome to Béatrice, the first person to link up from France, showing beautiful quilted feathers on a quilt for a baby.  

Also, many thanks to Gwyned, Hilary and Chris for linking up last time  - a great collection of projects.  

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post and/or grab the linky button for your blog's sidebar.
  .
3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for four days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Monday.

So far quilters from USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand and France have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Linking up with Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 22 - Stitching by Numbers

Yes, I know, it has the look of early to mid 1960s wallpaper.  I can just imagine my mum and dad chatting with the decorator circa 1966.. "Oh yes, it would be ideal for the chimney breast above the gas fire, with the rest of the room done in magnolia emulsion..."

This is the sum total of my free motion quilting this week - an A4 sized sampler for my own reference.  Having enjoyed doing landscapes with variegated thread, I decided I needed something like a colour chart.  I have been using Gutermann Sulky Cotton 30 and building up the colour by quilting close parallel lines. The effect when working with variegated colours on undyed calico is fascinating, but sometimes it is hard to predict exactly how a particular shade will look once it is stitched.  Filling in rectangles would have been too boring for words - I wanted to do something that would serve its purpose as a colour reference and as a miniature wall hanging.

So I did leaves against a changing background.  The leaf on the left is very close in colour...

... to the leaf on the right.  On the reel it is hard to tell which one would look darker when stitched.  Once stitched the difference between the two shades is more apparent.

I love this fresh aqua green...

... and this green with russet has a definite autumnal feel.

It is very handy to have 11 shades stitched in a sampler already - especially at this time of year, when the subtler shades all fade into insignificance under the electric light in the evening.  If I know in advance which colours to use, I could get on with a landscape in the evenings.

Here goes for week 22...

Last week's participants showed a fascinating collection of projects.

First, a big welcome to Jen, the first person to link up from New Zealand.  Not only did she show us a lovely quilt, but also her peonies in her garden.  It is hard for us in the northern hemisphere to imagine spring coming in November!

Next, a special mention for Janine, who quilts on her Singer 115-1 treadle.  Truly a girl after my own heart!

And congratulations to Hilary who has some rather exciting news this week...

Also, many thanks to  Carole, Maartje, Gwyned and Linda  for linking up last time  - a great collection of projects.  

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post and/or grab the linky button for your blog's sidebar.
  .
3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for four days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Monday.

So far quilters from USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland and New Zealand have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Linking up with Kelly's blog My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday

and Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday

and Amanda Jean's blog Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday

and Nina Marie's blog Creations... Quilts, Art... Whatever for Off The Wall Friday

and Connie's blog Freemotion by the River for Linky Tuesday

and Barbara's blog Cat Patches for the November NewFO.  The October NewFO is now a finished 12 x 12 seascape, and the latest development in the September NewFO is a cockerel.