And we’re going back to the very beginning… Right at the start, we talked about breaking up our blocks. We’ve broken them up with ribbons, we’ve broken them up horizontally, and we’ve broken them up diagonally. For your last feathers block, break it up. Go mad. Go crazy. Go for your life! Trimming and preparing…
After the super easy peasy first FMQ feather block, I decided to demonstrate some different ways of pimping your FMQ feathers. I say pimping, but I think plain, perfect FMQ feathers are a lot harder than adding a bit of variety (and visual distraction). Ok, this isn’t a great example. I am noticing a huge…
One of my favourite FMQ feathers (but the one that did my head in most to start with) is what I’m going to call the Toothfairy Wing Feather. There’s probably a proper name for it, but it helps me to think of drawing a tooth when I’m quilting this design. I love, love, love the…
We had a great meeting at Perth Modern Quilt Guild on Sunday It was our last week of me demo-ing FMQ (phew, I can relax now! Emmy is going to demonstrate techniques for joining your blocks next month) and the first of our feathers blocks! Now a lot of quilters love and aspire to quilting feathers,…
It’s time for our last block before our next meeting when we are going to attempt FEATHERS. This will help prepare you for feathers – the veins of the leaves are similar to the movement you use to create feathers, but the leaf shape gives you a nice small area to practise in. First,…
Do you remember making paper dollies? This sort of thing? How about trying to quilt that? Last year I did a class at Handcrafter’s House with the amazing Helen Godden who introduced me to the idea of ‘continuous line designs’. Helen is a Sweet 16 Ambassador and an amazing artist. She’s so good at this…
It’s time for the next two blocks! These blocks are variations on the Orange Peel design. It’s such a useful and variable design, I thought I’d show you the basic technique, some variations, and then let you go for your life! The orange peel pattern is one I admired in a number of Judi Madsen’s…
This is the final block of row 1! Your challenge (should you choose to accept it) is to: split up the rectangle however you’d like practice a few different filler designs. I went totally crazy and tried a plait but you can do boxes, ribbons, an hour glass… I just wouldn’t recommend you try the plait/braid…
It’s time for block 3 of the QAYGFMQAL! Are you ready for Block 3? This block is inspired by Judi Madsen of Green Fairy Quilts. Judi is one of my quilting idols. I want to BE Judi when I grow up. If you are serious about free-motion quilting, Judi’s book Wide Open Spaces is a…
Let’s get this party started! You’ve got your blocks prepped, your darning foot on, you’ve had a glass of white (red stains worse) to relax those shoulders and nerves, you’ve brought your threads to the top and you’re ready to go! By the way, there’s a Facebook group here if you’d like to join in and…