Free Motion Mavericks - Week 387 - Poppies

 

One flower that is absolutely everywhere this time of year is the wild poppy.  Why has it taken me years to come up with the idea of quilting it?  I tried out a few ideas on paper, then quilted a sample.  The quilt has a number of 6 inch squares to be filled in, and I wanted a fairly compact design.  This is the first attempt, and apart from the red thread breaking (for once I'll blame the thread - I think it's a dud reel) it was quite quick and easy.  After just one test I was ready to fill in squares on the quilt.

All but one of them were worked on dark red fabric.  I had a good look at the poppies growing at the local allotments, and saw that the general idea is drooping stems for flower buds, upright or slightly drooping for open flowers, and upright stems for seed pods.  As for the leaves, they are deeply cut and generally rather messy in real life, so when quilting they are perfect as an infill on either side of the stems.  I was a little worried they might look too much like seaweed, but people probably wouldn't think so unless I suggested that to them.

I tried the design on the brick red, but prefer it on the darker red.  For some reason the flower shape of this one is more like a Californian poppy.

This flower is more true to life, but as usual I have taken a few botanical liberties.  All told, I'm pleased with how they turned out.

Here goes for Week 387:-

Many thanks to Gail for linking up with her design for a quilt in Jewel Carvings batiks - this version is made by her friend Amy.  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 385 - Vine Leaves

 

For this quilt I am trying out a few new designs so I can include lots of plants from Spain.  Grapes are on the list, but I haven't quilted grapes for years and wanted to improve on the vines I have quilted before.  I have only quilted them once, way back in 2013.  This time I wanted to make the leaves more true to life, so I looked at plenty of pictures online to see the outline I needed to aim for.  Because I always quilt the veins on the leaves before the actual outline, I took advantage of artistic licence and departed from nature for the actual veins, and arranged them in a way that guides me in the right direction.  To fill in the gaps in between I have enjoyed quilting long tendrils, letting them twist and curl about.

This afternoon I have done a practice piece to work out how best to quilt a bunch of grapes (sounds messy).  The obvious struck me this week.  It is far easier to start at the bottom of the bunch and work upwards.  Why didn't I work that out nine years ago?  The reason I haven't quilted any since then is that I started at the top, got to the bottom and couldn't work out how to get back to the top without taking the work out from the machine.  Today I turned the sample piece upside down, started with the bottom grape, gradually widened the bunch to reach the top, and turned the work round once I got there.  The experiment paid off!

Here goes for Week 385:-

Many thanks to Andrée for linking up last time with her chevron potholders.  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.