Thursday, November 29, 2012

Spirals - November Free Motion Quilting Challenge

November's theme for the Free Motion Challenge over at Sew Cal Gal was spirals.

November FMQ Challenge Front

Now I admit that I have been on a bit of a spiral kick lately.  This time last year, paisley was the only FMQ filler I was able to do.  Spirals have now become my "go to" FMQ filler.  It has become a shape I am comfortable with and I am usually confident that I won't get stuck in a corner too often.

spiral mosaic

1. spirals for Olivia, 2. November FMQ Challenge Front, 3. spiral binding, 4. November FMQ Challenge back, 5. contained spirals, 6. October FMQ Challenge, 7. Batik spirals, 8. teacher quilt spirals, 9. totally groovy spirals

I think it is safe to say, I like spirals!

November FMQ Challenge back

The tricky part of this month's challenge was that we were supposed to TRY to make our spirals uniform in size.  I am much, much better at random sizes.  For my place mat this month, I tried to make each row of spirals the same size.  As you can see, some of my rows got a little crooked = not the same size spirals. I also seem to have forgotten to keep the rings of my spirals an uniform distance from each other.  And another issue with doing rows of spirals, is that I have a few awkward gaps here and there. Ah, well, this is supposed to be a learning experience.

My machine even has a spiral decorative stitch - so I put it on the binding!

spiral binding

Fun, right?

As always, I can't wait to see what next month's challenge is!  I can honestly say that this challenge is THE REASON I have progressed at all with regard to FMQ skills.  Thank you, Darlene, for putting it together!

Jen

5 comments:

  1. Hm, I need to take a look at this project! I need to expand my FMQ styles. Your spirals look great!

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  2. I too love spirals, and I am with you about random sizes. Yours look great.

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  3. Oh and I love the machine stitching on the binding. Love it. It is so nice to see a good use for the decorative machine stitches. This one is perfect.

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  4. Looking really good, I think I'm more of a patchworker than a quilter, but your pirals are looking fab, well done for trying lots of different styles

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  5. Cracking idea for the binding, the spirals look fab.

    F x

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