Free Motion Mavericks - Week 375 - Out Of Practice

Ready to go with the first line of free motion quilting, and I will admit that I was nervous.  It is so long since I have used the Singer 15K treadle for quilting that I had to really think about what I was doing.  Before starting I cleaned out a bit of old fluff from under the needle plate and oiled the machine.  Also I had to give the the sewing room a bit of a tidy up and a vacuuming, and then I sat down to do a line of quilting.  I decided to start with the strips between the main blocks of colour and to do a straightforward wave pattern.  Somehow I expected something to go wrong.

And it did.  The fabric shifted as I quilted down towards the edge of the block, bending the stripes as if they were blowing in the wind.  At some point later on I shall probably unpick it.  If I had put a pin in at the end of the strip it wouldn't have happened.

The second strip turned out better than the first, but some of the curves are slightly square shaped.  I managed to quilt a few more strips without a problem until I had to change the bobbin thread for a different colour, and I loaded the bobbin incorrectly.  That gave me a nice tangle of thread on the back to sort out.

I am hoping to regain the knack as time goes on.  In theory free-motion quilting should be like riding a bike - you never forget.  So far I have had a poor grip on the handlebars, collided with the kerb and nearly fallen off.  Things can only improve.  Also I have had to shift back my estimate of how soon I might finish the whole quilt.  I was thinking I could have it finished by the end of April, but was forgetting how much time it takes to dig the potato patch.  The weather has been mild and dry for several weeks, so I have been enjoying being outside and getting thoroughly grubby.  Now that we are having a sudden cold spell and I am spending more time indoors, all the fine movement and attention to detail that is needed for quilting has come as a bit of a shock to the system.  Digging the potato bed and making bonfires to get rid of the weeds is kids' stuff in comparison.

 

Here goes for Week 375:-

Many thanks to Andrée for linking up last time with her Traveller's Blanket.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more.

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 five days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Tuesday.

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