Wednesday, August 29, 2012

August Free Motion Quilting Challenge

This month the Free Motion Challenge was to stitch a design called "Jester's Hat" and the lesson was by Wendy Sheppard. The design looks so cute and I thought it would be fun. 
But it was H A R D!!!
Part of my problem is that I love to quilt swirls, and my brain kept wanting to launch into what it enjoys/knows to do, instead of learning something new!
I figured out during my many sketching attempts that I couldn't seem to fill in the space as easily as with other designs (like the heart shaped leaves or the loops and stars) and I did not seem to be able to keep the scale of the design consistent. 
But I could draw it across the page one way and then come back, so I went with that as a plan!
Over to the machine...
Unfortunately my Brother sewing machine is broken and away at the "spa", so I had to use my back up Janome machine. The small bed is harder to quilt on and I couldn't find my extension table. Shheesh!
But the quilting stitch on this machine was okay so I went ahead and tried my best. I stitched across and back, kind of on a diagonal and it looked okay. There were a  couple of crossovers, and unevenly spaced parts, but I give myself an 'A' for effort! And I am sure that the design would improve with more practice...or I could just blame the machine, but I'm sure it is operator error!!
To see other attempts at this month's challenge, hop over to SewCalGal.

9 comments:

beaquilter said...

what a nice filler design

Deb A said...

What a neat design. It looks great as the first try to me.

Janet O. said...

I second your statements that it is harder than it looks. I tried a practice piece a couple of nights ago and I couldn't seem to do a consistent fill, either. Also, I had trouble knowing where to go next. I had planned on using the design on a doll quilt I was quilting that night, but I switched to a different design instead. You have given me courage to try again, because I think yours looks pretty good.

Quilting Babcia said...

Your quilted design looks great! I think the universal comment this month is about boxing ourselves in or running off the edge with this design!
And it IS harder than it looks!

Carli The Quilter said...

Love to hook up with other Canadian quilters. But I have a request. If I don't get an inbox posting from your blog, I simply don't have time to visit hundreds of blogs. Please can I do the inbox version of following you?
Thanks for dropping in to my blog posting on Sashiko Sockeye Bowls. Your kind word of encouragement are like throw fuel on the fire:)
Carli

Connie Kresin Campbell said...

You did wonderful work on this challenge! It looks great to me!

scraphappy said...

Quite professional looking. It is hard to retrain the muscle memory, but it can lead to such nice variety. Nice work!

SewCalGal said...

Great job Kathy. You have really happy Jesters Hats that will look wonderful on your quilts.

Hope your machine has a good time at the spa, but comes home soon.

SewCalGal
www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com

Helen in the UK said...

Looks like you achieved a nice even design in your sample. Congrats on attempting this on a smaller, less familiar machine. Hope your regular machine comes home soon :)