Dala Horse and Flower Pot

Two more paper pieced blocks for the Penny Sampler done and checked off the list.

This is the Flower Pot block. Measures 12x18 inches.  I altered this one quite a bit as I've gotten tired of paper piecing and wanted to eliminate as much as I could.  The pot had lovely diamonds as part of the design.  I left them out and just used a single piece of fabric.  That fun text print was perfect for it.  The stems were also to be paper pieced....I thread sketched instead. The two border pieces are different sizes than Rachel used. 

The Dala Horse has probably been the most anticipated block in the quilt.  It's 12x12.  He is so cute.  There are suppose to be two but I only made one.  I'll fill in with some other block that's not paper pieced.   :)

I have some diamonds to paper piece and then will be DONE with those pesky papers.  After that a couple of pieced blocks and assembly.  The end is in sight. 

Free Motion Practice Again

First off let me say I really chose the wrong fabric to use for my free motion practice when I needed to be able to film it for the link ups!   Next time I'll be better.  :)    

Besides doing the weekly challenges of Leah's, I am also doing the monthly Free Motion Challenge over at SewCalGal.   Frances Moore is our teacher for January and she gave us this leaf design to work on.  Here is my first attempt at the leaves....if you can see it!

                                         They are fun to do but I struggle with consistency.  Oi!  


For my second try I did the leaves as a border to see if I could do that.  I had trouble flipping them so they wouldn't always look like a straight line.   Then in the middle I did week two of Leah's challenge -- which was to try to do stippling in rows.   Oh did that not work to well for me.  I learned to stipple years and years ago and was taught to randomly work so my brain just doesn't want to work in rows.  I may need to let it go with stippling and work on that idea with future designs.

Here's a close-up:

You're probably gonna be sick of my posts on free motion practice.  I'm linking up each week/month in order to get input from others and also for prizes with SewCalGal.    I'm even considering adding in the free motion quilt along over at Quokka Quilts to get even more practice.   We shall see.   Being house bound due to snow  for several days has sure helped with getting work done.   :)

Free Motion Quilting

2012 is the year for me to get free motion quilting (fmq) from just being head knowledge to being actual experience.  I've taken several classes and done a few quilts...some on my home machine and some on a long arm I rented.  But I've never practiced consistently...which means I'm constantly a beginner having to re-learn everything!

Leah Day from The Free Motion Quilting Project blog is hosting Quilt Along every Wednesday where she is guiding readers in learning fmq'ing.  She is starting us out with basic stippling.  I've stippled a little before so I just dove in an did it all over style.   I was trying to keep it big but found myself getting tighter...then I'd try to go big again.  Being consistent is definitely my issue!  No wonder Leah (and every fmq teacher I've ever had) tells you the key is PRACTICE!   :)
I'm quilting on a Juki TL-2010Q and using Aurifil 50wt. thread (cuz that's all I own).

Here's my first little practice piece:

And here's a close-up of some of my trouble spots:

Big stitches and pointy spots.  

I am easily distracted and it really affects my quilting.  A few minutes of the same old same old and I drift off mentally to something else.  Not quite sure what to do about that!  Maybe an actual quilt would help.   I also had trouble when I'd stop to relax (my shoulders get hunched up to my ears in no time flat) and would start again....my starts would be pointy or end up with those long stitches.   

Time for lunch and then back to PRACTICING.