Free Motion Quilting Practice - Day 4

Day 4 of FMQ (Free Motion Quilting) practice.

I'm finding that there are definitely two different kinds of FMQ.  I cannot remember what HH (Harriet Hargrave) called them, or if she had a name, but there's a difference between FMQ when you follow lines and when you just doodle it out of your head.

Up until this point, I've been just doodling out of my head, and I have to say that I'm getting pretty fair at that.

Following the lines is another story!

I can see that my stitches are becoming more consistent in the areas where I'm just doodling (the exercises that HH recommends), but when I do the other parts (where I'm following lines) it's still not there.  HH kept reassuring us that one day during practice, we would have an "Aha!" moment.  I'm still waiting, lol.

As I said before, I'm going to keep the pieces until I'm all finished (and a few of them, I'll probably keep forever) so that I can see the progress I'm making.  Plus, I'm making myself make see the good.  There is some good among the not so good, so I need to focus on that.

I was also able to pick up a #24 foot for my Bernina yesterday.  (Thanks, Angie!)  I LOVE it!  I feel like I can see what I'm doing a little better.

I also worked on seam allowance.

HH strives for a scant ¼" seam.  This means a few threads smaller than ¼".  Since the feet that most of us use on our machines are made to help you achieve the ¼" seam, they don't work so well for a scant ¼".

HH suggests (on a Bernina) using a #13 foot (which is the straight seam foot) with the seam guide attached to but your seam up against (kind of like the #57 foot).

It looks a little strange, and it's awkward because I've been using the #37 foot (a quarter inch foot without a guard) and so it's awkward to feed the fabric up against that edge.  Also, that long bar that you see sticking out to the left?  That needs to be cut off because it's in the way.

I worked with it and got it set so my seams came out perfect!

You can see here that the middle strip is EXACTLY 1½".  COOL!  The edges were just a hair wider than they needed to be, so I shaved them off, then my strip set was EXACTLY 5" wide.

COOL!!!!!

And, it's starched "flat and stiff as a board!"  (You'd be proud, HH!)

So, those were some of my adventures today in Hargrave Land.

What did you do today?

Preparing to Become a Better Machine Quilter

Not only am I working through Harriet's Quilter's Academy, I'm also working to become a better machine quilter.

I made a commitment to myself to go through the exercises that she teaches in her Heirloom Quilting Class every day for 30 days in a row.  This is Day Three.

Since I was out of practice squares, I needed to make some more.

So, I thought, "I'll just get this done as quickly as possible," but then, I heard, "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well."

I guess I should start out by telling you what I mean by practice squares.  Practice squares are squares of batting and scrap fabric (or muslin) that you practice your FMQ (free motion quilting) on.  Harriet suggests 14" squares.  She even sells sets of 14" squares of all the different kinds of batting that she carries in her store.  I ordered a set because I would like to see how different the quilting looks with different kinds of batting.

I'm a Warm 'n' Natural kind of a girl, but only because I buy batting by the bolt and that's what I could get locally. I'm anxious to get the samples of the other kind of batting and see what other kinds of bat I like!

Here's my batting squares. I cut them from the extra batting left over from quilts.

Anyway!

A L-O-N-G time ago, I bought this huge (I can't remember how many yards, maybe 20) length of white muslin.  I bought it to make up practice squares, but I never did it.  (Just think how good I would be by now if I had started WAY back then, lol.)

So, I was just going to go ahead and just cut the fabric into 14" squares and then I thought, "No, I'll press it first."  This is what it looks like unpressed, lol.

Kinda icky, huh?

And this is how it looks all pressed and starched.

A bit better.

Yes, it took a little time and effort...but is becoming a better machine quilter worth a few extra minutes of my time?  I think it is.

Have a quilty day!

Day 2

You know the definition of character?  Hyrum W. Smith says:

Character is the ability to carry out a worthy decision after the emotion of making that decision has passed.

So, the question is, do I have the character to carry out my decision to become a better quilt maker?  I guess we'll see.  As my mom used to say, "You'll just have to hide 'n' watch!"

So, in addition to trying to work through the Quilter's Academy books, I am also going to work on my machine quilting skills.

I'm making a commitment to quilt through Harriet's quilting exercises (found on pages 122 and 123 and 158 of Heirloom Machine Quilting) every day for the next 30 days.  Yesterday was day one (since we did them in class) and today is day two.

I plan to keep them all, so I can look back and see how much progress I make.  I would encourage you all to do that as well.  If you would like to get better at machine quilting, why don't you join me?  Even if you only do it a couple of times a week, I promise you'll see improvement.  I couldn't BELIEVE how much improvement I say in only two days of class!

Just make up some 14" quilt sandwiches and make a commitment to quilt