So here we are at the end of the year and the end of our FMQ challenge. I am so very grateful to SewcalGal and all our amazing teachers for the opportunity to learn and to have fun with others during this year.
I feel that I have learned a lot and tried to do things that I never would have thought of on my own. Feathers seemed a mystery to me at the beginning of the year, not to speak of elaborate borders. Now I am quite comfortable to go and apply these skills and keep on learning.
January: Leaves and hearts taught by Frances Moore.
A fun project colored with crayon. Looking back they seem a bit jerky, but I was soo pleased to learn to make them!
My difficulty always lies in finding my way from one leaf to the next. Later I learned to avoid this problem by adding loops in between and I still do that.
These hanging pockets hold all my sewing items and save space in my corner.
I later quilted two quilts with a combination of over sized hearts and loops. They are versatile, happy, playful and easy to execute.
Heats everywhere! A Valentine’s tote.
February: Feathers , taught by Diane Gaudynski These both intrigued and frightened me. we had excellent tutorials and I really, really enjoyed learning to make feathers!
This was one of my first tries.
It looked better painted. Yes, I see a theme emerging here, I color or paint everything when I have time.
They just kept growing! This turned into a couple little bags.
Somehow feathers came easy for me. They just made sense, so I couldn’t stop!
I still use this bag often!
Yes, I had time and I had fun!! I decorated this with beads , paints and glitter.
March: Learning to combine different background designs , taught by Ann Fahl
Quilted first and painted after, leaves, butterflies and flowers.
A wallet and a phone case with many different designs. This was very entertaining to do and I liked the square spirals the best!
Free style.
April: using stencils, taught by Don Linn. We learned a very useful technique on how to use stencils in different sizes.
We transferred the design using mesh or similar see through fabric. First we traced it with a sharie and then transferred it with washable fabric pens.
I sewed mine with a variegated thread.
May:Let me preface this by saying that my holidays were officially over at this point. I had had a slow semester teaching and then we had summer holidays, from here on out my time became much more limited and I had less time to fool around. In May Leah Day taught us how to do foundation designs. May also saw the arrival of our new puppies!
The train track is made by first making the wiggly line and then going back over it sewing the tracks. Obviously the trick is even spacing to begin with and then adjusting the tracks to fill out the fabric as evenly as possible. I had fun with it, though it proved a bit more difficult then I expected.
Same idea, different design. This became our puppies first padded bed, which they didn’t like, so it became their sleeping corner.
Bandit looking very innocent! Don’t believe him!
“Who, me??? Sleep there?? Why ever, when I can sleep like this!”
“This is more my idea of a good sleeping place. A six foot giant at my command.”
Anyway, that was May!
In June, we learned to divide and conquer by using different styles together.Cindy Needham gave us wonderful instructions.
My acre of diamonds.
My checker board.
And my beaded feather,
Together it made a very interesting tapestry.
July,was taught by Angela Walters.
We learned to make tiles by sectioning off squares and filling them separ
I only managed to make this one piece due to time constraints and the fact that I really had a hard time making straight lines in free motion.
In August we learned to make Jester hats taught by Wendy Sheppard
I am not very good at these and hope to practice them some more this coming year. But I do like my coffee mug!
I absolutely love Wendy’s work as she combines happy applique with outstanding quilting. I put all the teachers on her as live links so anyone can go check up on them. They are outstanding and talented and I hope to learn much more in time to come from them!
September: Paula Reid taught us to fluff and stuff our quilts so we can easily manage big quilts on domestic machines. I appreciate her advice as my usual sewing corner is just that, a tine corner next to a cupboard. Now when I have a big quilt to do, I move the whole operation to the living room and set up chairs to distribute the quilt’s weight. It’s well worth the trouble and I am not afraid of big quilts anymore!
This is fuzzy but you can see my set up.
I really don’t know why I look so serious, ha! Then again, I quilted this whole quilt in one day, maybe it was a bit much!
October: Teri Lucas taught us to use ready made stencils.
This is a beautiful wreath and I again got lost in painting and beading!
What can I say, I like to have fun!
November: Sarah Vedeler encouraged us to make spirals.
I made a whole quilt in spirals and love the effect. Bandit liked it too!
December was a surprise for me. I did not expect to learn borders, simply because I couldn’t imagine the potential of them. Patsy Thompson gave us a fabulous tutorial, her love for quilting shows so well and I really admire her as a person and as an artist.
I struggled for time, but in the end I got it done with some lay time thrown in.
Once again, out came the paints! If someone had told me at the beginning of the year that I would do thi.s, I would have just fainted or laughed, I am not sure which.
I am so pleased with all that I learned this year! A great big THANK YOU to SewcalGal and all our teachers!!
I am hoping to do all the Bonus tutorials this coming year. I also have a list of skills I still want to learn and a list of projects I’d like to attempt. I definitely won’t get bored!
HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL MY FELLOW QUILTERS!
See you soon,
Cathy
thehappygreenfrog 