Free Motion Quilting Revisited

Oh what a tangled web to view

When I attempted FMQ!

I had done a small bit of free motion quilting years ago and decided I would try again.  Voila my mess!  It looks like an unraveling tangle of yarn.

But wait, there is more to this project that makes me think of a web. When I sat down to blog about my FMQ experiences this morning, less than a foot from my nose on the computer screen was this critter - diameter about the size of a golf ball. Yuk!  I did not want to squoosh him on my lovely large glossy (albeit dusty, now that I look at it) Mac monitor but neither did I want to whisk him off to who knows where.  My husband took him off with one of those yellow stickies by 3M.  Then he squashed him! Yeah!

But back to my FMQ adventures.  I remembered three things about FMQ: 1) drop the feed-dogs, 2) the faster the needle moves the faster you have to move the fabric to get even stitch size, and 3) it takes practice.  I'd forgotten how MUCH practice.  More critically, I'd forgotten what position the pressure foot needed to be in.  I tried "down" and could barely move the fabric even with vigorous tugging which I knew could not be right.  I tried "up" and you can imagine what a mess I had to pick out. I then went a-googling to find a U-Tube video and thought this set of four how-to sessions was quite good.  I thought, "Great, the teacher even uses a Pfaff like me," (as seen in image grab from the video).

I learned that I'd forgotten it takes a darning pressure foot. Back to the sewing machine to try again. My next challenge was that I'd forgotten how to install the darning foot on my machine.  Finding the right  "hole" to put the peg in took a while. And the teacher said the foot is "down". OK. So far so good. Ready to roll.

But I still could not strong-arm the fabric around!  I tried "up" again and then "down" again, then "up" again and "down" again and somehow during this floundering around I learned by accident that apparently on a Pfaff there is not just up or down but also an "in between" down when using a darning foot.  I confirmed this discovery by  re-reading my machine manual much more carefully.  Here is the close-up of the leftover block I used to practice my FMQ. Part of this exercise was to prepare for quilting the Duck, Duck, Goose quilt from my  previous post.  No pun intended, but now I am "chickening" out.  I will reserve my first FMQ project for a recipient other than my first grandchild.  I will probably try it on something I keep for myself.



On the bright side, though, I did try out the 505 basting spray and was quite impressed with it.  There was no odor while applying.  The sandwich was not stiff at all and did not smell even when I put it right up to my nose.  The basting spray held like a charm and, believe me, this little sandwich got pulled, and tugged, and picked at a lot.  The batting scrap I used was Warm and Natural and the little bit of stickiness on the exposed portion that peeked out from around the top was gone when I checked the next morning.  So my escapade was a learning experience and I am looking forward to taking a class in FMQ at my local quilt store this summer or with my daughter's quilter in Oklahoma when I visit.

So I do not have a lot physical to show for this week but I gained confidence and knowledge with basting spray.  Much better than pins!  And as the saying goes, "once begun is halfway done",  I am now on the road to not being so hesitant to learn FMQ.

Completed projects:

1. Got over fear of basting spray
2. Learned  some beginning info for FMQ on my Pfaff

Ongoing projects:

1. Duck, Duck, Goose - completed binding
2. Bug baby quilt - admired fabric and read directions
3. Chicken quilt - planning to spray baste with 505
4. Doll quilt - with free-motion quilter, binding is made

No progress (but re-listed here so I do not forget and leave buried in closet):

• Hexagon Mask Quilt - layout begun but overwhelming
• Fire and Ice Quilt- sitting in closet awaiting decision on backing
• Grinch Quilt - ripening on the design wall
• Pumpkin/Iris/Blossom square wall hanging- needs backing and binding

I want to start:

• Presents with Bows quilt kit
• The Ghastlies- strip quilt

This week's stats:

     Completed  projects - 2 sort of - depending on how you count 

     New projects - 0 

     Currently in progress - 4

Duck, Duck, Goose and Finished Heartstrings

Yee, gads!  I was amazed to see that it has been three weeks since I posted.  We were in Disneyland and Legoland from Thursday May 3rd through Tuesday May 8th so I guess my excuses for the Wednesday before and the Wednesday after is packing for and recovering from the trip. Disneyland and Legoland were fun.  It was particularly rewarding to see my son get into the Duplo building.  He is a special needs adult who turns 26 this month and this was his birthday trip.

Immediately after returning, I placed the binding on the heartstrings quilt for my grand-niece and mailed it off.  Again Mary Ann did an awesome job with the quilting of it- my photos do not do her quilting skills justice.  Be sure to check out her blog for some other photos.  She put in extra effort to get it to me soon so I could bind it for the baby due May 6th so "Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mary Ann".  Carmen  thanks you, too. You can see it in her wee smile here, just one day old. 

I love the curliques in the swirly pink fabric and the loopy hearts within the peeled back hearts.

I did get to do some sewing on Mothers' Day.  I have had the fabric in a kit for a strip quilt that I bought 2-3 years ago in Oklahoma.  Here are the fabrics.

The strips were pre-cut in the kit and all I needed to do was decide on a pleasing arrangement and sew them together, which I have did in less than two hours- the sewing part, that is.  The "arranging in a pleasing order" took a few days of trial and indecision and gazing upon my design wall before committing.  I have found a great use for my iPad.  I snap a picture on the design wall and then display the iPad in its stand on my sewing machine counter top surface to remind of the order, lest a hefty breeze whisk my hard thought-out option off the design wall.  I plan to quilt this one myself and am considering a different stitching pattern for each strip. Maybe I will use a diamond shaped grid on the orange fabric with the egg yolks, maybe a square grid on the blue dotted fabric.  I think I will just put some squiggles quasi-echoing the blue background ducks and geese, both the big and small versions.  Perhaps the yellow Duck, Duck, Goose will just be channel quilted horizontally and perhaps some stippling on the white close-packed ducks fabric.  I hope all this is not too ambitious for me since I am just beginning to free motion quilt. The binding will be a mini-stripe of white, yellow, blue and orange and the backing will be a  white/orange small (but not mini) print.  I have no pix of those yet but will show them with the assembled quilt in a later post.

Completed projects:

1. Pink/lilac/green heartstrings baby quilt - bound, signed and mailed
2. Second IKEA cabinet assembled and ready to be loaded with fat quarters

Ongoing projects:

1. Duck, duck, goose, strip pieced
2. Doll quilt - with free-motion quilter
3. Chicken quilt -  spray baste 505 purchased online from Amazon arrived, will try myself to do free-motion quilting on this quilt

No progress (but re-listed here so I do not forget and leave buried in closet):

• Hexagon Mask Quilt - layout begun but overwhelming
• Fire and Ice Quilt- sitting in closet awaiting decision on backing
• Grinch Quilt - ripening on the design wall
• Pumpkin/Iris/Blossom square wall hanging- needs backing and binding

I want to start:

• Bug baby quilt- more on this later
• Presents with Bows quilt kit
• The Ghastlies- strip quilt

This week's stats:

     Completed  projects - 2 

     New projects - 1 

     Currently in progress - 3