Starburst

 

This one, I was really tempted to keep. But I've been wanting to make a quilt for this particular friend for quite a number of years. Finally, her 60th birthday gave me the impetus to get it done.
I originally started an alternate quilt for her. But then Kim Caskey shared Ricky Tim's Kool Kaleidoscope (videos can also be found on YouTube) and I decided to try that instead. I bought the requisite 20 fabrics for the kaleidoscope part, which then just sat there while other projects took priority. Eventually, I was also able to find the book somewhere, either at a thrift store or among the used books being sold at a local quilt shop. Finally, I was invited to share this friend's 60th birthday celebrations, and that was the motivation I needed. 
Initially, I had 3 Christmas fabrics in the collection I was saving for this project, but decided that that wasn't going to work. This had to be an every day quilt, not a Christmas quilt, and, while the pieces may have ended up too small to be significant, I didn't want to take the risk. So, I moved those three to my stash of Christmas fabrics, and picked three alternates from my stash. I ended up using 19 of the collection of 20 fabrics in my kaleidoscope, and then had to decide what to do to make it into a throw-sized quilt. Because the centre looks like a star, I decided to make it a supernova, with a "night sky" background, and adding a few extra stars on the bottom. I ordered an appropriate background and border fabric online and prayed it would arrive on time. It did, actually several days before the expected arrival date, thank God. I considered adding rays or "arms" made from the remnants of the strata (the fabric strips sewn together to make the kaleidoscope), but when I put them on the design wall, it just didn't look good. So, I decided instead to just square off the kaleidoscope with background fabric. 

I made the stars for the bottom part of the quilt out of leftovers from the fabrics used in the kaleidoscope.
In spite of the fact that Ricky Tims says in his video that many people say they're not happy with their results, I've been happy with mine from the start. But when I was ready for the border fabric - a blue and purple batik with gold metallic stars printed on it, I cut a couple of strips and put them on the design wall beside the quilt top and it did not make me happy. I felt that the stars were too busy and distracted from the kaleidoscope. So, I chose instead to just complete the remainder of the quilt top with the background fabric, especially since I had ordered enough. And I'm very happy with that decision. I also chose to use the same fabric for the binding. 
For the quilting, I continued the star theme and used Becker's Shooting Star. 

The backing is actually a much deeper, richer brown than this. And it's minky dot, of course, so it will be nice and snuggly for her. And I called it Starburst.
The final quilt ended up about 50" by 70", so a good sized throw. 

40 Country Quilting Projects: Iris Medallion Quilt

 I have a lot of older quilting books. I've picked them up at various thrift stores, clearance sales at quilt shops, library sales, etc. When I use an older book, I do expect there to be some outdated techniques, but I don't have a problem with that. I've been making quilts long enough now that I'm confident enough to choose a technique that suits me better. But what I don't expect are errors: miscalculations in yardage, incorrect cutting measurements, inadequate or missing instructions... And, in my opinion, any pattern should have pattern testers before it's published: at least one person, preferably 2 or 3 or more that is at the experience level of the target audience for the pattern and completes the whole project following the pattern exactly. That way any errors can be found and corrected prior to publication. It's not enough that the original pattern designer has made the quilt. That designer might have certain steps that are so automatic that he/she neglects to include them in the instructions. Or maybe there were distractions during the writing of the pattern and things got written incorrectly, or excluded altogether. So pattern testers are a necessity. But, from my experience, it appears that there have been a lot of patterns published with no prior testing whatsoever. Which is quite a pity. A really poorly written pattern could be enough to discourage a beginner from pursuing the hobby altogether. And that would be a shame. 
So, in all honesty, I cannot recommend this book, unless you're a relatively experienced quilter and are into brain challenges. 

There are just too many mistakes. I have done quite a number of projects from this book now, and I think that's more than sufficient to know that it is not a great quilting book. 
I originally posted about my quilting book challenge back in December of 2016: I was planning on completing every project in this book, with some possible modifications, like using fusible web for my applique, and never hand stitching unless absolutely necessary. I had no idea that many of the modifications would end up being correcting the patterns. And by the way, I'm not really sure how the author calculated the number of projects: if I made 3 Christmas ornaments, does that count as one project, or three? So, I'm not totally sure what number I'm at, so the 40 in the title is a best guestimate. 
But on to the challenges with this particular pattern:
First of all, I will say that I can't honestly speak to the yardage requirements. I switched colours, added fabric from other projects and sometimes did my own thing, but as far as I can tell, the fabric yardages listed are reasonably accurate. Not so for making Template G. It states 12½ x 12½ x 17¾-inch right triangle. Hmm, knowing what I do about HSTs (half square triangles), I think that following these measurements will end up with a square that's slightly too small. Making an HST unit that ends up 12½" square (12" finished size), I need to start with squares that are 12⅞", not 12½". So, I ended up making HST units according to my knowledge, and not cut individual triangles using a template that wasn't the correct size. 
My main concern with this pattern, however, is the cutting charts, particularly for the appliqué blocks. For the individual iris blocks, it says to cut 12 of Template L. This is the leaf template, and it neglects to state that you also need 12 of the reverse of Template L. Then for the centre medallion, it calls for 8 of Template O and 8 of Template P, also leaf templates. This time, the amount was correct, but half of those 8 each need to be reversed. Otherwise all of the leaves would be pointing in the same direction. 

When it came to actually doing the appliqué, I found that the instructions were not as clear as I would have liked. There are no specific measurements or guidelines for positioning the pieces. For example, in the centre medallion, you start by putting the 'O' leaves on. Obviously, from both the diagram and the quilt pictures, these leaves are partway up the stem, but there is no indication for how far up the stem. Furthermore, the diagram shows the 'O' leaves on the vertical and horizontal, and later instructs the quilter to put the 'P' leaves on the diagonal, but the quilt pictures show the opposite. I went with the placement in the pictures, and just guestimated for where to put the 'O' leaves. As far as the stems go, I felt that they were too short and made mine longer.

There were also no measurements for where to attach the corners on the centre medallion. 
As for the rest of the instructions, I was occasionally referring to them, but mostly doing what I knew needed to be done. I found it rather peculiar that the Quilting Basics chapter does discuss strip piecing, but never recommends using it for the 9-patches, which would have been ideal for that technique. And that's what I did. 

I did a little research into why this book would have still been using templates for so many of the pieces that were pretty basic measurements. Apparently, while rotary cutters, mats and rulers existed at this time (1990), many quilters and quilt publications were still using templates. And that would be why the cutting charts in this book indicate the number of pieces required, but not how many strips to cut first. If you're interested in a little history of quilting templates, you can find it here. 
Anyway, my personal design changes in this quilt:
Initially, I was going to do the irises all in purple, as per the pattern, but the sister for whom I was making this quilt really likes yellow, so I opted for bi-colour irises, incorporating the yellow. 
Of course, I used fusible web and machine stitching for the appliqué, rather than freezer paper and hand stitching. I would still be working on this quilt a decade from now if I was hand stitching all of those pieces down - 160 individual pieces. And I did not use bias strips for the stems - just regular fabric and fusible web, stitched down by machine. 
The original size of the quilt was to be 84 x 108 inches, but I wanted it 90", my preferred width for a queen-sized quilt. So, I added the checkerboard border on the sides. 
The "trunk" of the pine tree in the pine tree block was supposed to have been the same dark green as the solid green triangle and square in the block. But who has ever seen a dark green tree trunk? At least not on a pine tree. I used brown instead. And I opted for a more medium green as well. I felt that the dark green in the quilt pictures kind of "shouted" and was rather distracting from what should have been the focus of the quilt - the irises. 

I also chose not to use blue in the 9-patch, opting instead for an alternate purple print.
If I had to do it over again, I would probably choose to use fabrics with greater contrast for the yellow parts of the irises. And in the individual iris blocks, I likely would have also decided on greater contrast between the green leaves and the green part of the background. 
In spite of all of the challenges, it really is a beautiful quilt. And, as you can see, it looks significantly different from the one in the cover photo on the book. I told my middle sister, Nancy, that if Therese (the sister for whom this quilt was made) doesn't like it, she should give it back because I sure do. And Nancy said that she would be next in line. 
For the quilting, I had really wanted to use an iris pantograph, but I wasn't pleased with either Iris Clamshell or Siberian Iris from Urban Elementz. They were too sharp and stylized. The iris design included in the Flower Flakes collection from Meadow Lyon is very pretty, and more what I wanted, but it was just a single block, not an edge to edge design. And really, since I own so many pantographs that I have yet to use, I could hardly justify buying a new pantograph. And I certainly didn't wish to buy a whole bunch of them in order to justify the cost of shipping. So, rather reluctantly, I was planning on choosing a design from my rather extensive "library" of pantographs. But I hadn't totally given up on the idea of an iris pantograph, and I finally decided to check Anne Bright Designs. It's not a vendor I resort to often. She doesn't sell paper pantographs. Most of her designs are digital, although she does have a few self-print. I might have mentioned before that I am not a fan of self-print. I don't like having to print out multiple pieces of paper and trying to precisely line them up and tape them together. And then, if I want to keep it, how I am supposed to store this mass of paper and tape? What I choose to do instead is print out one repeat of the design in the size I want, and trace it onto a roll of paper cut to pantograph size (12'). The roll of paper is actually for a children's easel, and I bought it on Amazon. But that is quite a tedious job as well. 

Nevertheless, I found a design I liked: Iris for Donna. I enlarged it 200% to get it to the size I wanted. My hand weights came in handy to keep the paper in place whilte tracing. But it took me several days, and probably loss of brain cells due to inhaling the magic marker smell. But I was happy with it. 

In spite of enlarging it 200%, it is still a pretty delicate design, and I certainly had to take my time quilting this one. But I got it quilted within 2 or 3 days, and I got it in the mail to my sister. 

Because I'm a bit of a numbers nerd, sometimes I like to keep track of things. In the picture is bobbin number 8, that I only used part of, so over 7 bobbins to quilt this quilt. The 1100 metre spool of Aurilux thread was full when I started (cone of blue on the right for comparison). And that was just for bobbin thread. I used Glide on the top. 
 
Interestingly, I kept the invoice for when I purchased most of the fabric used in this quilt because I made notes on it for which fabric to use for what part of the quilt. The invoice is dated 2017, so it was long overdue to be completed. And that's it - my final quilt for my sisters. Now, I really should make one for my own bed!

Where Thistles Bloom

When I had my DNA tested, I expected my ethnicity to be roughly 50% Irish and 50% German. After all, my father was Irish and my mother was German, both of relatively recent migratory history. My father's mother was born in Ireland and his father's parents were born in Ireland. And my mother, and her parents and siblings were immigrants from Europe. I thought I might have a smattering of some other European DNA since my German ancestry didn't come directly from Germany, but from Serbia (which had been Yugoslavia, which had been the Serb-Croat-Slovene State, which had been Austro-Hungary...). But it wasn't my German ancestry that yielded any surprises. As a matter of fact, my DNA results show that I'm approximately 52% Germanic Europe (hmm, apparently, my father must have had enough Germanic ancestry to add that extra 2% 😂). No, the surpise was the 26% Scottish and only 18% Irish! Apparently, my paternal grandmother told one of my cousins that she was actually of Scottish descent, of Scottish nobility, no less. (Though I have yet to verify the nobility part). This cousin told my oldest sister, but my sister didn't tell me until my DNA did. How did I not know this? I don't recall my father ever mentioning it, and he was my grandmother's oldest son. So, if anyone ever knew it, it should have been him. But, as far as I recall, he was only ever Irish, or Canadian of Irish descent. 
So the origin with which I felt I more readily identified - the Irish - was less than a fifth of my DNA! While the Scottish ancestry, which I had no idea about, makes up a quarter of my DNA! I guess that explains why I love tartans and bagpipes.  I suppose I can just say I'm about half Germanic and half Celtic. 
Anyway, I've decided to explore more of the Scottish culture. Maybe I'll even try some vegan haggis for Robert Burns Night. I'm already good with neeps and tatties (turnips and potatoes). And steel cut oats. 

I'd been admiring this fabric collection in my local quilt shop for awhile. I especially liked the thistle fabric. And it goes with my Scottish heritage! There were both layer cakes and jelly rolls available, and some precut metres and half metres. So, when the shop had a sale, I purchased a layer cake and a jelly roll. I have a pattern in one of my Craftsy courses that calls for both. If you've been following my blog for long, you're aware of my feelings about pre-cuts and their associated patterns. I find that often, instead of making the process more efficient and convenient, they end up making it more cumbersome and waste a lot of fabric. And using yardage for the patterns would be much more efficient than pre-cuts. But there are a few books and patterns out there that make the best use of them. Unfortunately, the Craftsy pattern fell into the former category, and not the latter. There was no way I was going to fiddle with using pieces of layer cake squares and jelly roll strips and have a whole lot of annoying leftovers. I still can't figure out why people design these patterns that don't use all or at least most of the pieces...
So, I had to find an alternate. 

I had picked up this book at the same sale when I picked up the Northern Star book, and decided to give it a look-through to see what I could find. Unfortunately, most of the patterns don't make great use of the layer cakes. But I found the "Final Four" pattern, that called for 2 layer cakes, much of which was being cut up into 2-1/2" wide pieces. Great, I could probably make it work with the jelly roll and layer cake combo that I had instead. And the finished size was big enough to fit a double bed, so when I got it done, I would finallly have one of my quilts to put on one of the beds in my house. (While I do have both a double and a queen-sized quilt that I made, both of them are very early projects and are in need of repair). 

Once I had all of the pieces cut, I then had to plan the layout. 

It took a lot of planning and fiddling to try to ensure I didn't have the same fabrics right beside each other. 

During the assembly process, I took pictures and kept my cell phone nearby to refer to in order to keep the fabrics in the correct place, and the directional fabrics going in the right direction. 

Meanwhile, I had to decide what pantograph was going to suit this quilt. I considered the Piper, a freebie from Meadow Lyon, which I had already downloaded, enlarged and traced onto a roll to make into a pantograph. But I opted instead to go with Purple Thistles, especially since the thistle fabric was my favourite of this line. 

And those are really huge thistles!

And while I started it way back in April of 2024, I was able to finish it on December 31st, so I finished it in the same year as it was started, which doesn't happen too often for me, especially not for bed-sized quilts. 
Now, to see if I can get quilts made for the other beds in my house. And maybe get a better dust ruffle for this one... 

High Tea

 

You may recognize this quilt setting. It's the Trellis Setting by Sharyn Craig  that I also used for Where the Charming Roses Bloom, only in that case it was a square version and this is a rectangle version.  I bought this one as a quilt kit from my local quilt shop. While the fabric is beautiful, I likely would have switched a couple of things up a bit. First of all, I'm not entirely sure that I like that cream coloured fabric for the setting triangles. I think it's too great a contrast with the mostly black background fabrics in the rest of the quilt. Even if it had the little rosebuds on it like the black sashing and the blue framing fabrics, it likely would have been more satisfactory. But this is just a tonal, with a print so indistinct that I had to be very careful to make sure I wasn't sewing it with the wrong side out. The next thing is the same focus fabric is used for both the large and small squares and this is a really large print, with the result that the smaller squares have bits and pieces of teapots. It really doesn't suit the smaller squares. I did use the same focus fabric for both large and small squares in the Charming Roses quilt, but it was a smaller scale print, so it worked much better. Finally, there's the matter of the framing and sashing fabrics. 

In the charming roses quilt, both the sashing and framing fabrics have a totally different background colour from the focus fabric. This worked well when putting the framing around the small squares, where it was only put on two sides of the square. 

And it's supposed to go on the outsides of the small squares. But in High Tea, because the background colour of both the focus fabric and the sashing is black, there wouldn't be a strong enough demarcation between the two fabrics. 

And so I put the framing fabric on the inside. It doesn't give it the same finished look, and, if I had enough of the blue framing fabric, I might have considered framing the small squares all the way around. 

I googled this fabric line. It's several years old, so not much can be found online. However, I did find this fabric, which is the same print as the fabric used in the wider border, only with an ivory background. 

Perhaps I could have used this for the sashing, changed the focus fabric for the smaller squares to the black rosebud fabric that is used in my quilt for the sashing, and changed the setting triangles to the same fabric as that used in the wider border. I think that would have been more aesthetically pleasing, though I still think it's a beautiful quilt. 
I used the Coffee Break pantograph from Urban Elementz. It's coffee (or tea) cups with swirls of steam rising from the cups. And this is the backing fabric I used. 

It's a totally different fabric line, but I felt it suited this quilt. I did have a hard time parting with it, however, as it's so beautiful 

Originally, I purchased this quilt kit for my oldest sister, who collects vintage tea pots. However, when my youngest sister wanted a bed-sized quilt, I knew that I would have to make all of my sisters bed-sized quilts. And this one is defintely not bed-sized. However, I was hoping to make a quilt for a friend who is a ceramicist (potter) and I felt that teapots and cups would be appropriate for her. 

Stitch Pink

 

Stitch Pink was finished in time for Christmas! Yay! I'm so happy to have it finished and gifted. And I don't dislike it as much as I thought I might. Actually, I rather like it, though I still think it would have looked better with sashing. And in spite of my funky fabric choices, I think it actually looks pretty good. Anyway, my niece loves it, and that's what's important. 

Originally, I had hoped to use the Accessories pantograph to quilt it. However, at 16.25", I discovered that it was just too wide for my Amara's throat space to manage. Unfortunately, I purchased this pantograph before I had sufficient experience to know that would not work in a 20" throat. If I had, I would have just had it customized to fit my throat space, like I did with Deb's Fireworks. It really is an awesome pantograph and I'm disappointed that I paid good money for something I will not be able to use. I was really hoping I could squeeze it in. Nevertheless, I then had to chose an alternate pantograph and went with Tea Rose, which I was very happy with. 

If you happen to be looking for a pantograph that works up quite quickly, with a little more substance than Bumpity, I highly recommend this one. 

Meanwhile, the Vintage Maple Leaf Quilt top is also finished and loaded on the longarm. 

I will save reporting on my adventures with that quilt for another post. Till then, I hope you all had a Merry Christmas. 

The 'Gladys Over' Quilt

I remember a story one of my favourite pastors told. It was about a pastor who had preached his first sermon in a new church. As he was greeting the members of the congregation after the service was over, one lady said to him, "I'm glad it's over." He was rather taken aback and wondered what he had possibly said to offend this women that she was glad his sermon was over. That is, until he was brought to the realization that she was introducing herself, "I'm Gladys Over." So, now that this quilt is finished, I am glad it's over, and think that maybe I should have called it the 'Gladys Over' quilt, instead of 'Practice Makes Perfect.' 

My Free Motion Quilting Journey

Many years ago, I would occasionally assist some of the ladies at my church with quilting quilts. These were generally made of polyester double knit and we "quilted" them with ties of yarn. That was my first experience with "quilting." When I made my very first quilt, which you can see in my post, "My Quilting Journey", I quilted it on my sewing machine. I had never even heard of a walking foot, let alone a free motion quilting foot, and was just "stitching in the ditch" before that was even a term. I think I had read somewhere about quilting by machine and so I tried it, especially since I'm just not into hand stitching if I can avoid it. As I really didn't know what I was doing, my stitching was much too far apart, but that quilt is still together. The cat quilt I made for my baby daughter (now aged 30) was quilted the same way. And it's still around as well.

Then I discovered the walking foot and I continued with stitch in the ditch, only making my stitching lines closer together. I had a sewing machine with a darning foot and an embroidery foot, but when I attempted free motion quilting, I just wasn't getting it. Even though I'd enrolled in an online course, I couldn't do it. I couldn't get the tension right - I was getting "eyelashes" on the back, and my stitches were always too small or too big. I was never much of a doodler and having to move the "paper" (the quilt sandwich) instead of the "pen" (the sewing machine) wasn't working for me. I just couldn't get it. I was told to try using an embroidery hoop and keep practicing. But wasting all of that time and fabric wasn't really something I was prepared to do. 

Then I gave longarm quilting a try, using a pantograph, renting in a longarm studio. And I was hooked. Having stitch regulation, being able to move the machine rather than the quilt, and following a pantograph with a laser light worked so well for me. And I could finish a quilt in hours, rather than days or longer. And there are thousands of pantographs available, so I didn't need to limit myself to just a few designs. 

But I still thought about that free motion quilting (fmq) thing. And, not yet being able to purchase my own longarm, I still wanted to be able to finish quilts on my domestic machine. So, I took a night class at a sewing/quilting/fabric store. And I learned a lot. I learned that there are sewing machine snobs. I overheard a couple of the ladies in the class talking and agreeing that you can't get a decent sewing machine for less than a few thousand dollars. I don't remember the exact figure - $2000? $3000$ - but it was much more than I was thinking about paying for a sewing machine. And I was the only one in the class with an older machine. My Janome MC 8000 was probably over 20 years old at the time, although it had been a topnotch machine when it was made. And still was for that matter. And even though it was made for embroidery, not quilting, the ladies with their fancy new machines didn't really do any better with the practice exercises than I did. And we practiced with the walking foot, with stencils, with Pounce, with marking pens, with Golden Threads quilting paper. I bought an open toe quilting foot for my machine, and I gained sufficient skill that I decided to attempt quilting a throw-sized quilt (Unbroken, 60" square) on my domestic machine. It was disastrous, and I ended up picking out some very tiny stitches. Since then, I have only quilted very small projects (wallhangings, hot pot holders) on my sewing machine. That particular quilt is the only quilt on which I have ever used computerized quilting, as I rented one of the longarms at my local quilt shop. The owner set up the program for me, and I just had to press the button and cut off the thread at the end of each motif. 

I continued to finish my quilts on the longarm using pantographs, eventually purchasing my Amara. I was not going to practice fmq when I was renting longarms. At an hourly rate, it would have been just too expensive. However, the same shop owner that set me up on her computerized machine also taught me a basic loop-de-loop and I finished one quilt, Sweet Dreams, using this technique  And now that I owned my own longarm, I felt that I should at least give fmq a try. I took one course in longarm fmq in a quilt shop, in March of 2019. And actually, I didn't do too badly. But I was still reluctant to ruin a perfectly good quilt by practicing on it. Or waste good - and expensive - fabric. However, Quilt Canada was coming to Edmonton this year. And I enrolled in some fmq classes. Well, we all know what happened with the pandemic, so that never happened. Finally, on Bluprint's final day of sales, I purchased some classes on DVD, one of which was Christina Cameli's Free-Motion Quilting Essentials. Now I was comitted to giving it a bigger try, on my own machine, in my own home, without the time (and space) constraints imposed by in-class learning.

The problem with this course is that it is taught on a domestic sewing machine. And the instructor uses 10" blocks - not exactly a size that's workable on a longarm without being made into a quilt. The instructions called for 5 each of 3 different blocks. And I tried to figure out how to make 15 - 10" blocks into a workable quilt. Even though this was just a practice quilt, I still wanted it to be useful. I finally decided to add 10 of my own blocks (5 each of 2 different blocks) with 2" sashing and came up with a 62" square quilt. 

Next, I had to decide on fabric. I'm not a big fan of solids. As a matter of fact, I don't even always use solids for my background fabrics. So, initially, I was thinking of textures/tonals. But then I decided that, as I was practicing free motion quilting, I really wanted to be able to see the quilting. And that is done best on solids. I still have quite a few blues and greys left over from the Bluenose II Pixel quilt, plus some greens, and a little red. Hmm, not exactly what made for an exciting quilt. While I was very happy with the results of the blue-grey combination in A-Maze-Ing, that was not all solids. And then I remembered the Dahlia quilt kit. I had purchased it at the same time as Queen Guinevere's Tiles, and it has remained in my stash since. Here's the pattern: 

And here's the fabric that came with the kit:

Nothing against this pattern, but if I am going to go to all the trouble of stitching all of those curved seams, I am certainly not going to waste my efforts on such an uninspiring colour combination, and likely not solids either. Grey is one of my least favourite colours in a quilt, and not a colour that you would find in beautiful dahlia flowers. So, I have considered different options for this quilt kit. At one time, I considered using it as a signature quilt. Done completely in solids, there is plenty of space for notes from friends. But I also thought that if I ever need solids in those colours, I could use the fabrics from this kit. Well, now was the time. However, I needed 5 different fabrics for the blocks, and I didn't really want to use the greys or the cream. From my stash, I pulled a purple-y blue and a funky colour combination was born. 

Then I had to choose the two extra blocks I was going to use. As these were 10" blocks, I had to choose a 5-patch pattern to keep it simple. I also like to try new block patterns, so didn't want to repeat ones I'd used before. The first I chose was the Cake Stand block. 

And I decided that I really do like this funky colour combination. Searching for a second block, I found some really interesting 5-patch patterns, but some of the piecing would end up quite small in a 10" block. And I really didn't want to tackle that in a quilt that was essentially just a vehicle for practicing free motion quilting. I found the Crow's Nest block on Jinny Beyer's site and found that the blocks went together very well using her templates. 

My goal was to use all 5 colours in all 25 blocks, with each colour in a different postion in each block. And I achieved that goal. 

After finishing the blocks, I auditioned them with the remaining fabrics from the kit to determine which one would make the best sashing:

the light grey,

the medium grey,

or the cream.

I actually asked my friends on Facebook for their opinions. While most people chose the cream, I was leaning more towards the medium grey. In spite of my dislike for grey in quilts, I just felt that this was the best colour to make these blocks "shine." I even tried putting different blocks on my design wall with the two favourite colours. 

This

and this.

Ultimately, I chose the medium grey and then a darker grey for cornerstones. 

And I was quite happy with the results.

Finally, I got the quilt on the longarm, and it was time to begin trying my hand at free motion quilting. 

The first lesson was on Wiggles and Loops. And I used the lazy 8s in the quilt border.

For the most part, I just quilted what was in the illustrations in the book. But the challenge was deciding what to put int the blocks that were not part of the class, plus the sashing and cornerstones. 

I wasn't getting the ribbon candy thing, and my lazy eights degenerated into something trying to look like a cursive upper-case 'G'. 

Feathers weren't actually part of this lesson, but I decided to try them anyway and really like the look of them in this block. 

The problem I find with stippling is that I find that I get myself into a corner and can't figure out how to get out. End of row 1.

The next lesson was Spirals and Sharp Points. I chose spirals for the horizontal sashing.

I'm actuallly reasonably pleased with how this block turned out. 

I forgot to turn the corner with my square spirals, but I wasn't much good at turning corners anyway. 

Really not bad for a beginner. 

Once again, drawing feathers and pebbles from lessons I hadn't actually taken yet. That's the end of row 2. 

The third lesson was on circles and travelling (which means going back over the same stitches) - and actually learning feathers and leaves. As you've probably noticed, I chose to use feathers in the vertical sashing.

Another challenging thing about this quilt was that while doing the fmq on a domestic machine, the block could be turned in any direction, while on a longarm, the quilt was stationary and I had to learn how to do the motifs from whatever direction the blocks were on the quilt. 

Some of my motifs, like the feather in the light blue, look pretty amateurish.But then, I am an amateur. 

After two rows of doing feathers in the large centre triangles in the Cake Stand block, I decided to try something different, and I like how it turned out.

And that's the end of row 3. 

The nest lesson was on radiant designs, S-curves and arcs. Those 'S' curves just aren't working for me. 

Though I haven't focused on them in thes pictures, you may have noticed that I keep trying different motifs in the dark grey cornerstones. I never did really settle on one that I liked.

Those flowers aren't cutting it either. LOL! 

I was almost finished this block, when I decided to change the position of my handles. I had been operating the machine with them in the micro-quitling position, but I moved them back up to the regular position and was actually happier with that. 

I managed this flower much better, with the handles in the up position than I did the one in the second block with them in the down position. End of row 4.

The final practice lesson was on adding emphasis and mashups. 

I think mashups is a good name for my free motion quilting. 

The square in the middle of this block was supposed to have an unquilted star in the middle. Unfortunately, I did not have a star shape handy and drew it freehand, so it was pretty wonky. Also, I used a white pencil, so it wasn't easy to see against this colour. After making quite a mess of it, I decided to just fill it all in with pebbles. I should have tried having the handlebars in the down position as these are pretty tiny pebbles. That square is only 4". 

My final cake stand block and I went back to feathers, only I tried to echo them. Can you tell I'm getting tired of fmq? Some awful looking quilting on those feathers. 

Worst S-curves! Most definitely getting tired of this by this point. Last block - yay!

Conclusions Regarding Free Motion Quilting

I didn't particularly enjoy this experience. While I don't think I did terribly (especially not for a beginner), and I do believe that I would improve with practice, I don't really enjoy it enough to want to practice. 

• It takes a lot of effort to keep my size, shape and spacing consistent. With a pantograph, I'm following lines, so everything is going to stay reasonably consistent. 
• With free motion quilting, unless I'm doing an edge to edge or allover design, I have to decide what to do with each indivdual piece of fabric. When I use a pantograph, I just have to choose the pantograph and get quilting. 
• This type of fmq is too dense for me and I think the focus becomes the quilting rather than the quilt. I don't like that. The instructor said that if you want to de-emphasize part of the quilt or block, you should quilt more densely on that part. I find the opposite true - that I notice the more densely quilted parts more. 
• This is definitely more intense quilting than pantographs. It takes more time, concentration and effort. 
• There are thousands of pantograph designs available. I can quilt designs, like dinosaurs or cats - that I would probably never be able to accomplish with free motion quilting. 

In special situations, I may decide to use these skills again. And while I completed the Sweet Dreams quilt with an allover fmq design and could easily do that again, I'm still a little disappointed that I didn't use the Sweetness pantograph that I had originally intended for it. So, I am, and shall remain, a comitted pantograph quilter. 

One final thought: I have come to the conclusion that, unless the recipient is a fellow quilter, the average person will not even notice the design used to quilt a quilt. Sure, they know that it's stitched together, but unless the quilting is really obvious, like contrasting or heavy thread, or it's pointed out to them, are they going to notice that I used candy canes to quilt it? Not likely. I could probably quilt all of my quilts with Bumpity and the majority of recipients wouldn't know any different. So, in my opinion, the quilting is really for the satisfaction of the quilter. 

As far as the course itself is concerned, I can recommend it. Christina's a good teacher and the course gives a good foundation for learning free motion quilting. 

But I'm not quite finished practicing yet. A few years ago, when Sew Sisters was having a Stuff Your Stocking event, I foolishly purchased a bunch of machine quilting rulers. Why foolish? Because I think that quilting with rulers is going to be as much work, if not more, than free motion quilting. And I don't think I will enjoy it any more. And I had to buy a ruler base for my machine in order to use them. And then I enrolled in a Quilting with Rulers course in order to learn how. So, in order to justify my investment, I have to at least give quilting with rulers a try. And who knows? I might actually like it more than fmq since it's at least got to be more precise. 

And then there's that other free motion quilting class I purchased...

One more thing: I almost forgot to show you the fun backing fabric I used on this quilt. 

Isn't it awesome? Since it was a practice quilt, I determined to only use fabric from my stash in its construction. I had purchased this a few years back to use as backing for baby/children's quilts, but somehow it hadn't yet found its way into one. So, I decided this would be my fun and funky backing for my fun and funky quilt.