Friday, September 10, 2010

Free Motion Quilting - First Attempt

I finally took the plunge ...it wasn't as bad as I thought. I had a bit of a tension problem that showed up on the back (which I didn't notice until I was done). But all in all, I'm happy with it. I figure this time next year I'll be able to see how much I've improved.

I'm not sure why this picture is so small ...maybe it's time to figure out how to take a quality picture :)

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Free Motion Quilting

I've never made it a secret that I can't free motion quilt to save my life. Any of my attempts so far have been embarrassing ...so I gave up.

Recently, Christina, from A Few Scraps decided to offer some FMQ help ...I knew this was for me!!!

I think this Free Motion Quilt Along is going to teach me a LOT!!! Today was my first attempt at the machine and I think I did pretty good. My lines may not be the straightest or stitches the same length but I'm so far ahead where I was a week ago.

I can't wait to see what Christina has in store for us with her next lesson.

September OPAM #1

I finally machine quilted the March tablerunner from Maria Peagler's color series that I started in January. I hadn't been very pleased with my machine quilting so I found it hard to sit down to my machine. Even though I was only doing straight stitching with a walking foot, it just didn't look good to me.

I did much better this month. I had a bit of a problem with the echo quilting in the white squares but I realized it was how I was holding my hands and moving the fabric.

Want to know my secret with being happier with my machine quilting???


My new baby ...and I'm in love!!! I love that it has a built in walking foot, a needle threader and it actually cuts the threads at a press of a button! There are other great things about this machine but I'm still getting to know her :)