A Few FMQ Try-Outs

With A Very Merry just dying to be finished,
I'm on a mission to master a few new
FMQ designs.  I prefer to use designs that I feel
comfortable with, are fun, and allow for mistakes. 

The past holiday kept me so busy that it wasn't until
Monday that I was able to sit down at my machine to
try a few out.  Please bear in mind that these are all
 "first runs."  I purposely don't try real hard at first 
because I want to see how easily (or not!) that they
might work up for me--if I get it barely passable
first time through, it'll show some promise. 

I headed over to the Free Motion Quilting Project 
blog for some ideas and came up with a few.

These are icicle lights: 


A "first run" through this one tells me I would have
issues with straight lines, especially while tugging
 on a big quilt...then again, this little sample piece
actually moved too easily so maybe it'd not be that
 bad?  I think I could get the "return exactly over
previous line" worked out though.

As much as I want to put swirls into this quilt,
I don't think that'll be a go for me just yet. 
 (I'm not posting that picture!  Not up for that much humiliation today.)    
Maybe with a lot of practice but that's not something
 I want to take the time out for now, nor do I want to
 try something new that I clearly struggle with
 on this project.


The swirls on this fill-in pattern were about as far
as I felt comfortable with.  I like to think through the
same situations (curve to the left/right, up/down, etc)
an actual quilt (aka, heavy, hard to maneuver) would
provide.  Toward the end of this I felt that, with a little
more practice, I could get it...except for returning
back down on top of a swirl already stitched. 
My husband, who, thankfully, has a fairly picky eye,
told me he saw no problem straying from
the swirl a little.  What do you think?  I know I can do
better--just not perfect.  Does it need to be exact or
does it kind of give it a ribbon-look if I happen to get
off track a bit?  And I'm definitely going to have
to get a more even-pattern look to it.


These flowing star flowers look like poinsettias, no?
I just can't see how to incorporate the "flow" part.
The flowers, though--those showed some promise.
Sooo...


It's messy in the pic but I now have it figured out how
 to handle the "back down between the petals" part
so I think this could be perfected enough. 
And it's really fun.


  I'm thinking of just using white thread.  I don't like
to call that much attention to my quilting...for now. 

For now, I'm taking a break to make a few more 
Christmas gifts! 

Comments

Miranda said…
Wow, you chose very ambitious patterns! I don't think I could do any of them. I like the big flower. I also like just the middle of it, the part that looks like a star. I'm looking forward to see what you choose :)
Debbie said…
Your curls and hearts look good...you can open the pattern up a bit by meandering the curl and I do like the ribbon effect. I can't follow a line I have previously stitched at all! But your poinsettia..flower.. quilting is fabulous! I like the slightly curved streamer to link them. It's going to look great on your wall hanging.
Katy Cameron said…
Wow, love all your FMQ efforts, and I actually think some of the charm of it is not having absolutely precisely perfect lines :o)