Wednesday, June 27, 2012

June Free Motion Challenge - WIP Wednesday



It's time again for another Free Motion Challenge.  I really think this is one of the best things going on in blogland!

I found this month's challenge by Cindy Needham especially difficult.  We were supposed to break up our area into smaller sections, then fill each section with a new design.  "Divide and Conquer", she said.  Well, I divided, but I am not sure I conquered.  The designs used could be anything - feathers, grids, free-form anything really - but we were supposed to try out repetitive lines, circles and S-curves (feathers fits in with this one).

I spent all month drawing on paper, and while I came up with some interesting sketches, I am not sure that I really "got" the lesson.  Drawing is one thing, but sewing neat lines and S-curves was hard.  When I look at designs posted in the lesson, I see beautiful things, but when I look at what I have created, I see a mess.  Of course, this is just for the purpose of improving my skill, but I think this particular lesson might be a little too soon for me even after several practice pieces.  I was way beyond my comfort level and kept wanting to break out the marking tool to trace/draw everything first -- although, I still probably wouldn't have been happy with the results from that either.  I am still having a lot of difficulty with feathers, and even my repetitive lines are messy.  How hard should lines be???  My brain just had trouble keeping up - something Cindy Needham called "Disequilibrium".  Turns out I have that in spades!

Now for something positive - I'm not sure if it is just that I have so many stitches on this month's piece or what, but with the exception of a few areas, my stitch length was more uniform despite changing speeds frequently.  I shall pat myself on the back.

It makes me wonder what is cooking for next month's challenge!


Completed Projects:
  • 3 x 6 Bee Blocks - just need to get them in the mail!
  • Free Motion Challenge for June

On-going Projects:
  • Thank you quilt for Ashley's teacher - quilting in progress
  • Red, White, Blue New York Beauty - piecing in progress
  • Urban Nine Patch Tablerunner - sandwiched and awaiting quilting
  • Handstitched goodies, including the class quilt
  • June UFO - "A Christmas Something for myself" - English paper piecing in progress (wow it takes a while!)
Back Burner: (Maybe I am mistaken about the meaning of this category.  I seem to just be collecting UFO projects here.)
  • New York Beauty Quilt A Long - actually different from the one above.
  • Swoon - my fabric is waiting, and waiting, and waiting
  • Batik Stripe Quilt - still sandwiched and ready to be quilted!
  • Lincoln quilt - need to put the borders on this baby and finish it up.
  • Blue & White Stack-n-Whack for May UFO challenge 


This week's stats:
Completed projects - 2 - Hooray!
New projects - 0
Currently in Progress - 5-ish

Linking up with Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday's
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

5 comments:

  1. Love your FMQ challenge piece and your urban nine patch blocks. Great job this week.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You deserve a pat on the back. Good job.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very nice job! It's all about the practice, for sure. I didn't know about the Free Motion Quilting Project, but unknowingly did my own version of this assignment the other day. Mine looks "great" from a distance--just don't get too close! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your FMQ challenge piece looks great! Don't compare yourself to others, compare yourself to where you were a year ago. The whole point of the challenge is to practice and try new things.

    ReplyDelete
  5. most definitely pat yourself on the back - your piece looks fabulous!

    ReplyDelete

I had to shut off comments for a long time because I was just getting spammed. I'm going to try moderation for a while and see if that helps. Please leave me a comment.