My goal for this month is to work on my practice quilt and finish it. Specifically I want to practice my Free Motion Quilting. (FMQ) I'm just a beginner and have a looooooooong way to go. In late May I took my first class on FMQ on your home machine. In June I had a bad case of Vertigo and didn't do any FMQ until last week. That was too long of a break for a beginner. When I tried to FMQ it was a disaster. I keep reminding myself that practice will make me better, but looking at the practice work is painful and I wonder if I will ever be able to FMQ. I really want to be able to quilt my own quilts, so I will keep on trying.
After playing around on a few practice sandwhiches I also reminded myself that the pink "quilt" is just a practice quilt of uneven scrap pieces. It is just a tool for me to use, so I got to work on it. I decided to stitch in the ditch on all those straight lines. It frames each of the four blocks nicely and it gave me a bit of a confidence boost.
Next I decided to use a stencil for the two white blocks. One of the things I learned in my FMQ class is that if using a stencil gives me more confidence in my FMQ then it is ok.
I was watching a video on YouTube and saw a lady using some special glue dots to adhere her stencil, temporarily, to her quilt top. Brilliant idea. I don't know exactly what she used, but I just went to my stamping room and pulled out my Stampin' UP!
Mini Glue Dots. They worked great! It's fun to find multiple uses for the things I already own. :)
Can you see the little glue dot that my pencil is pointing to? The pencil is new to me too. I'm experimenting a lot on this quilt to see what works best for me. I have another practice quilt that I showed last week for experimenting with too. It seems smart to just jump in and try new things on quilts that I plan to use for the dogs. They won't care if my stitches are even or my thread is too loose on the back. ;)
It's fun to see this little piece coming together. It already feels like a quilt. One thing I will tell you though, I am ready to get back to my quilt tops. It is way more fun for me to sew those than work on the actual quilting.
I'm linking up to the mid-month check in on
A Lovely Year of Finishes. Thanks for the accountability, Melissa. I will be working on my two white blocks this weekend and deciding on what to do with my pink blocks so that I can get this quilt done.
Creative Blessings,
Heather North
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