I decided to complete all four of the bonus SewCalGal Free-Motion Quilting Challenges,
since I had completed all twelve of the monthly challenges (more about my year of the FMQ Challenge quilt here).
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| 9.5" square |
This is my version of the May Bonus Tutorial. It doesn't actually qualify as part of the challenge because we were supposed to quilt hand marbled fabric created by the tutorial expert, Linda Moran - oh well.
I interpreted the challenge to be enhancing some beautiful fabric, and decided to quilt some of my hand dyed fabric.
I started with 30Wt Sulky variegated thread (and a #90 Titanium needle).
I then used some 50Wt and 100Wt thread (and switched to a #80 Titanium needle).
This one was definitely different for me, and lots of fun!
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| 9.5" x 10.5" |
All about taking a photo and turning it into a quilt design. (I have a previous post on this one here.)
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| 8.5" x 10.5" |
The October Bonus Tutorial was by Diane Loomis. It was all about machine trapunto, something I have been wanting to try for a while (I even had the YLI wash-a-way thread waiting).
My design was inspired by designs from the book 'The Secrets of Elemental Quilting' by Karen McTavish. I traced it on to plain Kona cotton with a very fine pencil.
I used one and a half layers of wool batting for the trapunto batting. After quilting around the design with the wash-a-way thread (top and bottom), I trimmed away the excess batting. I layered the whole thing with a very thin cotton batting.
Since I have been experimenting with different colours of thread, I used a dark beige thread for the feather design. All the thread for this piece is 100Wt silk thread (YLI and Kimono).
I did some "scribbling" around the feather, and something I call "sand dunes" (one of the "bouncing backgrounds") around that. There is also a section of double grid work in the corner (it is on a 1/2" grid).
It is the first time that I have done this style of quilting with thin cotton batting, and the whole piece has a really nice feel. I will be trying more of this technique in the future.
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| 9.5" square |
This is my version of the December Bonus Tutorial. The expert for this one is Teri Lucas. The challenge was about printing an image on fabric (created with Kaleidoscope Kreator 3 Software) and quilting feathers.
I don't have fabric to print on, and so decided to use a piece of my snow dyed fabric - I thought the kaleidoscope looked like a snowflake and it seem appropriate (that's why I quilted a swirling design around the kaleidoscope too).
You can really see the beautiful design on the back of the piece.
In this tutorial, Teri Lucas has one of the best tips that I have seen in this Challenge - "The only way to improve stitching out feathers is to spend time at the machine stitching." - so true!
Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!❤
