Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Spring!

The weather here has been unseasonably warm
and Spring is bursting forth.
Thought you might enjoy a few photos 
from my walk last evening.




Notice the bumblebee?

Mr. Bumblebee seems to have a lot of friends lurking about
so please "bee" careful!


In other news...I've take the pledge!


SewCalGal is hosting a Free-Motion Quilting Challenge 
to help participants improve their machine quilting skills.
A free tutorial is posted each month by different guest teachers 
and it isn't too late to join...so check it out!

The guest teacher for March is Ann Fahl.
Ann has some great tips posted in her tutorial and has
inspired me to move away from using cotton thread for machine quilting.
The current brand of cotton thread I am using has been such a 
disappointment due to the high lint content that is left behind on 
my sewing machine. 



Ann's tutorial includes two quilting motifs that she encourages 
participants to try. The first one is the "Loop and Twist" which you see 
in the above photo on the left. Basically, it looks like a bunch of doodling! lol
Other variations of this pattern are the 
"Loop and Star" and "Loop and Heart" 
which you see on the right side of the sample. 
It took a while to get the hang of it, but 
 I  honestly like this pattern better than I thought I would.


The second pattern was the "Spiral" which begins at the outer edge of the circle
and spins into the center. She also included a "Spiral Flower" that 
incorporates the same type of spiral for the center. Ann encourages 
quilters to begin a notebook which includes samples of their
work and different machine quilting patterns that inspire them.

Thanks to Ann for the great tips this month!
I intend to begin my notebook with the above samples:)

May you always Sew in Peace!

3 comments:

  1. Yeah spring!!!! The flowers are so pretty.

    I like your FMQ project. I keep meaning to start it and have just not gotten around to it yet.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love spring... but the pollen does a number on me and I try to stay inside... *sigh*

    I need to start FMQ.... and I love the patterns you're working on... GREAT job!

    ReplyDelete

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