Free Motion Fun

I decided it was time to have a proper go at free motion quilting.  At Christmas I organised a present of quilting designs, gloves and a teflon slider to go on the machine bed.  I chose everything from Leah Day's Day Style Designs website.  You are probably familiar with Leah's blog  The Free Motion Quilting Project.  I really enjoy her posts and she is very generous with her helpful information and patterns.

This is the top I chose to practice on.  It's not too big, and it divides easily into four sections

 so I could try some different quilting patterns.  The squares are the I Spy #18 pack at Two Bits Patches.

First of all I stippled with easy curving 'U' shapes.  I worked from the centre to each side and back again, leaving four quarters to fill in with different patterns.

The first quarter got a squiggly line across the middle, then echo quilting each side.

Next was a squiggly shape followed by echo quilting.

Then, a paisley pivoting design.  This was the best ever, I had so much fun doing it.

Finally, an edge to edge bubble wand.  Hmmm, needs some more practice.



Here's the final result.  It does look like a practice piece rather than a finished work.  I had been avoiding free motion quilting because everyone said it was so difficult to do.  But I was pleasantly surprised with the result and I wished there was more space to fill. 

 The back of the quilt is a panel that I scored somewhere.

So, how do you quilt your I Spy quilts?  Do you use free motion quilting?  Will I be brave enough to try it out on a special quilt for a granddaughter?  (Yes, I was!)

Don't forget the blog give away for free I Spy charms.  You have until the 20th May to add your comment to the blog.