Free Motion Mavericks - Week 237 - Laying The Foundation

Rumpled and not very attractive.  I hate this stage.  I am anchoring down various sections of the landscape with well-spaced quilting of more or less the right colour and in the right general direction, so that when I start infilling with the detail the whole thing doesn't pucker up to blazes.  It is a slow process, and because it is so boring I keep sloping off and doing something else.  It is also slightly nerve wracking.  The great advantage is that I am looking hard at the picture I am working from, and gradually getting it embedded into my brain.

The machine is running beautifully smoothly after the oiling it had before we went away.  I gave it a good cleaning around the needlebar and pressure bar before starting sewing to make sure I didn't get an oily smudge on the fabric.  It is all too easy to forget and find out the hard way, but not this time. 

Also I am thinking of starting another, completely different, quilting project to run alongside this one so I don't get too neurotic about it.

Here goes for week 235:-

This week I am featuring two gorgeous projects!

Firstly, many thanks to Margarita for linking up last time with her .  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more...

… and secondly to Andrée for showing us her finished Gaia's garden.  Such a wonderful riot of colour!

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

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.

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