Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Developing my FMQ skills

I decided that I needed to work on developing my FMQ skills.  I tend to fall back on a my go-to pattern of echoed teardrops.  I thought about going to take a class and Judi Madsen from Green Fairy Quilts is not only an amazing quilter, but was teaching classes in Edmonton this summer!!  But when I looked at the cost of travel, hotels, classes etc, it was going to cost a lot!  Not to mention that this summer was very busy with a family wedding and lots of house guests saying with us, so it would be hard to get away. The other deciding factor was that the classes were all demo classes, with no opportunity for practicing the skills yourself.

So I bought one of her books....  Quilting Wide open Spaces

Image result for quilting wide open spaces

What I liked about this book is that it included a pattern for a quilt and then detailed instruction for how to quilt it.  Judi has a very distinctive style, and it is very dense quilting and intricate patterns!  At first I was a bit intimidated by the detailed patterns, but thought I would give it a try anyway. I had a problem initially with making the quilt top...lots of 7/16" type of pieces....which I struggle with!  And obviously made a mistake, because my blocks did not turn out properly and my points don't match up !!  :(

But I decided that since I was just learning a practicing it was OK!  I am sure that I would make lots more mistakes anyway!!!
I was pleasantly surprised ....although it is detailed it is not that difficult!!  Oh, lots of mistakes...don't get me wrong!  But...with such dense detail I found that it is not that obvious anyway!  Surprise!

The bottom line is I have learned A LOT!  Also , I have learned that  I will not likely quilt this way on most of my quilts.  Although I like how detailed it looks, I find the quilt is a bit more stiff, and not as soft and drapey. 



 And it took a LOT of time to do. What I will do , though, is incorporate some of this into my quilting.


  And also what it has done is really increased my confidence.  I am much more relaxed now when FMQ , which really helps.  I would recommend this book and practicing these patterns if you are looking to expand your FMQ.  Thanks Judi!