2012 Free Motion Quilt Challenge-December

Our December challenge tutorial was from Patsy Thompson and was entitled FMQ Borders. And as you can see from the photo above, we did many borders!!!

So before I go into the how of this lesson, I first want to thank SewCalGal for an amazing year of fabulous Free Motion Quilting lessons. How she did this, I will never know!! I do know that it was a lot of time and effort on her part and I thank her from the bottom of my heart.  I will truly miss this in my life!!

THANK-YOU SEWCALGAL!!!


This was a fabulous lesson and it wasn't as quick and easy as I thought it would be. I have spent much time fretting over each border and I still have a bit more to do!!!

The one border I added of my "own" is the diamond one. I actually found a tutorial by Judi Madsen at the Green Fairy blog on how to do a diamond border and wanted to try it out here.

I marked out 1" lines and stitched as above. It was quite easy and came out wonderfully. Then I did a very simple scribble in the triangles between to help the diamonds pop out more.

So I started with a striped fabric thinking that it would be really easy, I then used a thread that did not have enough contrast. So I am not really happy with the way the quilt turned out. Live and learn!!!

I didn't have much fabric to work with. So when I started measuring for all the rows I would need, I realized that there wasn't going to be enough. That is how I ended up with the left and bottom borders. I pieced triangles together!!

I decided on a small stencil for the middle, and then stitched all the borders.

For the first curvy borders it was suggested on using a flexible ruler, which I do not have, yet. So I used freezer paper measured to the exact size of the border and folded. Then cut, pressed on the appropriate border and with my washable marking pen, I was able to easily transfer the design onto the fabric.

Another technique I did, which I learned from Cindy Needham, was to stitch around the border on the seam line of the binding, with water soluble thread. Genius!!! That way, when  I got to the outer borders, I knew where not to cross. But when the binding in sewn on, this thread will simply vanish when the quilt is soaked in water!! Brilliant!!

I still have more of these micro pebbles to do!! To let you in on how big they are, the two rows above are a mere 1/2 inch in size!!

The "kissing" corner!!

close ups!!

This is the last challenge for the year. Many challenges are ahead of me with using what I have learned over this last year. I am eternally grateful for this awesome opportunity and for all the wonder members of our unique quilting group. I look forward to staying in touch with them and learning from each and every one!

Thank-you Patsy Thompson for an awesome tutorial and video. I learned a lot and have become much braver in trying out different border designs!!

Take care everyone, Happy Quilting and keep those needles sharp!!! Martha