Adventures in Free Motion Quilting

Yesterday’s goal was to finish my Loosely Curved quilt (see my last post).  I got some great ideas from my readers about how to quilt this little quilt.  I decided to quilt a different free motion design in each color of the quilt.  Linda had a great suggestion to take the colored thread off into the white background to make shadows. I love this idea, but since this is such a small quilt that will be seen close up, I think that the shadow effect would be lost.  I’m definitely keeping the idea in mind for another project, though!

My first task of the day was to make some free motion practice pieces.  This is a great use for those leftover batting pieces (I always seem to have lots that are about 12″-15″ wide) and some of that fabric that you’re not so wild about any more (or leftovers from wide backing as the white fabric is).

The patterns I decided on are leaves in the purple, watery meander in the blue, swirls in the red, squared meander in the orange and a wide, squared meander in the yellow.

I was quilting away, making nice progress until this happened.  I must have turned my machine off (lunch maybe?) and, when I turned it back on again, the needle slot would not line up where it is supposed to.  For normal sewing the little round hole is below the wider open area.  For FMQ, the hole is supposed to be in the middle of the wider area – not part way in between as it is.  One broken and one dented needle later, off to my dealer I went.  Luckily for me, they had a replacement plate and, less than two hours later, I was back in business.  I was thrilled not to have to leave the machine with them.  However, I lost a good part of the afternoon and, needless to say, I am not quite finished with the quilt yet.  There’s always tomorrow!

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