Free Motion Mavericks - Week 140 - A Walk in the Woods

Sometimes life is far too exciting to get down to any sewing - for instance, when an online quilting friend materialises from the other side of the Atlantic, and she becomes three-dimensional, talks, and even walks.

Late last year while exchanging emails with Gwyned she told me that she and her husband Dana were making plans to visit England to walk the Cotswold Way.  She hadn't realised how close she would be to where I live.  We decided that we couldn't miss the opportunity to meet up, so she emailed me her itinerary so we could make plans.  The best day for us was last Saturday, and we arranged to meet at nine o'clock in the morning at her overnight stop, the Falcon Inn at Painswick.

What followed was sheer delight - a walk through beautiful meadows and woods, with views across the landscape, and all the while getting to know each other.  At lunchtime we had a rendezvous with Gwyned's brother Nick and his wife Kate, who had driven over from Oxford to join us for the rest of the day's walk.  The photo was taken by Dana while we took a pause in the woods - left to right: Nick, me, Gwyned, Kate and my husband Alex.

What did we find to talk about?  Between us all, plenty, and surprisingly little about sewing and quilting.  However, Gwyned did say with some considerable feeling that she couldn't wait to get home and start working with plenty of colour.  I got the impression that she was totally greened out.  Later on while discussing the ease with which a walk turns into a series of detours, Kate redefined getting lost as free motion walking.  Yes, we even did a little bit of that too.

Truly a wonderful day! 

Here goes for Week 140.

The project that caught my eye in Week 139 was Andrée's Reason and Passion quilt.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and have a closer look.

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 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.