June 2012 Free Motion Quilting Challenge

Once again I am sliding in on deadline day for Sew Cal Gal's Free Motion Quilting Challenge! I always work well under a deadline but this month I was hampered with a freak accident that left my index finger badly injured. It's now greatly improved so I was able to spend several hours in my studio this morning to create this small (9" square) piece. While on injured reserve I did spend an evening visiting 88 of the blogs listed as participating in this month's challenge. Thank you all for sharing!

The quilt artist for this month is Cindy Needham. She's another of the talented quilters and teachers who have been generously sharing during this challenge. She emphasized three techniques. her" basic three".  They are repetitive lines, circles and feathers. She suggested we do a swirl design and then fill all the spaces with quilting.

Although I did make a copy of her swirl and even sketched in possible designs, when I got into the studio I simple grabbed a washout pen and began to draw freeform. At my machine I simply let the design flow.

Cindy shared how she begins and ends her quilting lines using a Clover Soft Touch Thread Pic and curved tipped scissors. As much of a tool freak as I am I don't have the Thread Pic. I have used a modified version of her technique using my scissors only.

The biggest help for my quilting is on each side of the free motion foot: rubber shelf liner. Ann Petersen uses this in the Craftsy.com courses I'm taking. It was my breakthrough! I must have a dozen different gloves,  helps, etc. but this is what has finally given me the right touch for FMQ.

When I finished my sample I liked it better than I thought I would. It looks a lot better at arm's length. What I didn't like was the messy border. I did a quick fusible border. So I could fuse easily I did a line of stitching about 1/8" away from my stitch border.

I'm learning a lot from this challenge. Do give it a try!