Free Motion Mavericks - Week 383 - Progress and Mishaps

 

Every time you think things are going swimmingly, you can guarantee you will run into problems.  Slowly but surely I am filling in the sections with free motion quilting, and have just done over 40 so far, so I am nearly halfway there.  This is the first flower I have done, one of my favourite designs, and one I have been looking forward to.  These will mainly be on yellow fabrics, and there will be four or five of them scattered across the quilt.   

I have quilted a few more olives, and they work really well on this dark red and black stripe.  This was the panel I was quilting when the problems really started.  The thread kept breaking, and after the fourth break I decided to stop blaming the thread and change the needle.  That was when I discovered the sorry state of my needle supply.  The next needle I put in made the characteristic thunking noise to tell me it was blunt, and I had to rummage in my tin again and reconcile myself to the fact that I shouldn't mix used needles with unused ones.

After seven or eight thread breaks and three changes of needle the quilter's nightmare happened.  A little bit of black oil-soaked fluff dropped down, and of course it had to happen when I was sewing on a pale pinky yellow.  I had to dash into kitchen and dab on some bicarbonate of soda.  Let's just say that the stain is now mainly gone, but I still have another process to try.

Meanwhile I have been rapidly running out of thread for the bobbin colours, so I was glad to get out for a shopping trip to buy thread and machine needles.  Now I have to train myself not to mix my needles.

Here goes for Week 383:-

Many thanks to Andrée for linking up last time, showing pieces entered for the Conversations exhibition.  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.

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 381 - Olives and Cherries

 

Every time I take photographs of this fabric I wonder whether the quilting will show up.  Hiding among all those stripes are my first FMQ olives.  I looked online for photos so I could see the shape of the leaves and how the olives hang from the branch, but didn't find many that were particularly helpful: then I found the ideal picture in the kitchen on the label of the olive oil bottle.  Then I started quilting and enjoying myself, took a few botanical liberties, and was quite pleased with the result, especially as my brain blended the grey and yellow into a shade of olive green.  I thought it was just my imagination, but when I showed it to my husband he said the fabric was just the right colour for olives.  Greatly encouraged, I sent a photo to my daughter, who said they looked like cherries.

So of course, the next design to try out was cherries.  This time I didn't need to search for photos, but just take a stroll around the corner to the nearest cherry tree and bring home a leaf.  Now I'm wondering whether my daughter will see this piece of quilting as olives.

At least she won't have any difficulty recognising holly.

                                                            

Here goes for Week 381:-

Many thanks to Andrée for linking up last week with her Pink Love table mat.  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.