April FMQ Challenge

I thought I would use my spare time this evening to knock out the April FMQ challenge by Don Linn.  No sooner had I sat down at my machine then I realized my BSR was missing!  It was a cry for help from my sewing area, which desperately needs organization.  So I organized a little until I finally found the thing (about 15 panicked minutes later) but it definitely still needs some help.

Anyways, onto the challenge!  I was actually incredibly excited when I saw this challenge because I've been wondering how the heck to trace designs onto quilts without a stencil.  This method was quick, easy, and inexpensive.  My only problem was that I had the "ultra fine point" sharpie and it was so fine that it kept getting stuck in the little honeycomb holes in the tulle.  I finally put it away and grabbed a highlighter because it was the only fat marker I had.

the "stencil" and its tracing onto the practice frabric.

Pretty good! 

I think the final version came out pretty darn well!  Not perfect, but hey, better than trying to do it with no drawing at all.  I actually feel really proud of this, because the last time I tried to trace a drawn design with free motion stitching was in a "mastering machine quilting" class, and it looked really awful.  I'm really proud of how non-wobbly the lines are, pretty neat and clean.  Not 100% symmetrical, but still, very satisfactory.

Also this was a great sample design to practice because it involved a number of locations where you needed to trace back over existing lines.  And you can barely tell at all where I retraced! Woo!  I'm just feeling super pumped and excited after completing this tutorial.  This block really made me feel like my skills are improving.

 I *definitely* want to try this with some feathers, to see if my technique improves by following a drawing.  Maybe if I follow a feathered drawing enough times I will be better able to draw some feathers on my own.  I am also definitely using this technique for quilting my cat quilt in the next few weeks.


Thank you to Don for the great tutorial!