I started quilting back in 2003, I think. In the beginning I could only straight line quilt using my machine's walking foot. It works. But I LOVED looking at the beautiful quilts that were quilted with intricate designs. I longed to learn how to free motion quilt. I'm not even sure how I ran across Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project. In August of 2009, Leah set out to post a new free motion quilting design each day, with a goal of 365 designs. What's more, she's got awesome how to videos and tips to go with each of the designs. So I read and watched tons of her posts and in Spring of 2012 I dove in and started free motion quilting. Armed with my Ultimate Quilting Kit I got to work on quilting a philanthropy quilt that I'd picked up from my quilt guild's philanthropy table. The quilt is bright colors and made up of 6" squares. I decided I'd try out a different FMQ pattern on every other square. Confession: That quilt is still a work in progress. However, I DID learn to free motion quilt as you saw on my quick blue quilt and on my purple quilt. Here are some of my pics from the beginning.
The Quilt
More to come when I get back to working on this project and make more progress, but suffice to say, I'm hooked.
In the meantime, if you want to free motion quilt here's Leah Day's Get Started page. She has met and surpassed her goal of 365 FMQ designs. Check them out on here. She's also leading a Quilt Along in 2014 to teach quilters of all levels to piece and FMQ.
I've linked up to the Aug 15 Quilty Flashback Friday.
Elizabeth Dackson
Good for you, jumping right in and getting started! Getting started is half the battle with free-motion quilting for lots of quilters :) And I love that you have these pictures that you can go back and look at to see how much you've grown with your FMQ, that's wonderful. Thanks so much for linking up with Quilty Flashback Friday!
sarah
Post authorThanks, Elizabeth. Sadly that quilt is still in progress, despite finishing other projects while it's sat on the sidelines. It was great fun to try out different patterns. There's some I would love to use on another quilt. The photos are a great reminder of that!
Sue
Love all the different FMQ patterns you used. Leah's tutorials are awesome! I've been reading back through your blog. Love the big, wonky star!
sarah
Post authorThanks, Sue! I've said it many times on the blog, but without Leah Day, I wouldn't be a free motion quilter! I'm thinking about how I'm going to FMQ the wonky star... it might be the first full quilt that I mark a pattern on before free motion quilting it.