How many quilters out there find themselves wowed and awed when admiring the work of a really, really, and I mean really good free motion quilter? After all the ohhhhing and awwwing, the progression of things seems to shift to start comparing it to your own work, often self confidence is too quickly washed down the drain.
I know that practice makes perfect, but I have come to the conclusion, that I really don't like freem motion quilting... that is to do it myself. My grand ideas to practice some free motion on a smaller quilt, quickly came to a halt when I finished the first row of leaves on my Woodland quilt. Quick, quick, I've got a pressing deadline on this one resulted in shifting to wavy line quilting, but I couldn't drop the idea of incorporating leaves in the overall quilting design. It hit me that on such a small quilt, it was still doable with a walking foot!?! Ok, so there would be a little bit of turning, but still doable.
I think what I am most proud of on this quilt finish is that it a.) it pushed me to incorporate some unfinished blocks for a finished project and b.) I used mostly scraps on the blocks, the background, and the binding... it's a great feeling to use what you have from those scrap bins!
Quilt: Wooland Friends
Blocks: Mini Woodland Bundle from Tartankiwi, Forest Floor from Lillyella's World, reverse applique leaves from Campbell Soup Diary
Started: August 2016
Fabrics: Basic Grey grunge and various stash scraps. Low volume background fabrics.
Backing: Various scraps
Finished quilt size: ca. 48 x 60 in. (122 x 152 cm)
Do you end up comparing yourself to other quilters? Do you find it discourages you when you are not able to master a certain technique?
Linking up with Let's Bee Social, Sew Cute Tuesday. and Scraptastic Tuesday.
Now will you look at that! Wunderbar. Ich finde die Idee weitere Blöcke mit Pflanzen und Blättern einzuarbeiten super. Der Quilt strahlt eine große Ruhe aus, was mir sehr gut gefällt.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the finish. It came out just wonderful!
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on the FMQ for myself- am in awe of the talent out there tho. I love to straight line quilt and yours looks amazing! Cute quilt
ReplyDeleteWell I'm certainly wowed and awed by this quilt. It is delightful and so well composed. I love the organic quilting, anything fancier would in my opinion have just been a distraction. I think it is natural to see the imperfections of our work (although I think this quilt is perfection!) but others don't see it or just recognise that that comes with the handcrafted nature of what we do.
ReplyDeleteI am so grateful to Angela Walters who although, YES, I would love to be able to quilt like she does, she never fails to say, this is supposed to be fun and never, ever tear out your quilting. As long as it looks fairly consistent over the whole body of the quilt, nobody is going to zoom in on the little wobbles or things you wished were a little better. It has freed me to really go for what I want to try. I just did a small project where I did some quilting around some blocks that I wanted to emphasize and make stand out but I lost control in a few spots and actually ended up sewing stitches into the side of the block. Not changing it. I'm leaving it. Overall, it DOES look fine, just like Angela said it would. I think your leaf quilting looks GREAT!!!!! The quilt itself is sooo cute, the quilting is just an added bonus that enhances the whole thing.
ReplyDeleteThis is just so natural and organic~great design and colors!
ReplyDeleteI love everything about his quilt! You did a fabulous job quilting it, too. The colors are perfect and there is a nice amount of open background space that really sets off the piecing and applique.
ReplyDeleteVery nice....adorable!!!
ReplyDeleteOkay, Allison, way to get RIGHT into my brain. Not even 2 days ago, I was showing progress from a secret sewing project to a couple of the other quilters involved, right next to a photo of an AMAZINGLY free motion quilted quilt that had been recently photographed and shared on IG. I was lamenting that maybe I should rip out the quilting I had already done and try again. But lo... I stuck with it, finished my held-breath, dripping-sweat, hunched-shoulders free motion quilting for my quilt and actually am fairly happy with it. I truly think that FMQ is one of those things where you can only fully excel if you can practice daily. It's still completely fine if you decide you don't want to do it ever!! <3 Just my two cents and commiseration.
ReplyDeleteQuilt comparison aside, I LOVE your finish. It's so peaceful with the low volumes, natural colors, forest creatures... it's perfect for a forest floor! I really love your scrappy binding, too! Yay!
I love this one!! Fantastic job figuring out how to quilt what you wanted, they way you wanted!!
ReplyDeleteFMQing - gosh. I used to love to FMQ. My machine was fabulous at it and never gave me a lick of trouble. Then I had started having tension issues with that machine, and spent almost $500 over the course of a few months trying to get it fixed. The machine works, but not like it used to, and she just can't FMQ anymore : ( After tons of research, I bought a JUKI Exceed F600 to replace my beloved Janome, because it was supposed to FMQ fabulously with no tension issues. That hasn't been my experience at all with the machine!
If my Juki was my only experience, and I had never FMQed with my Janome - I would think FMQing wasn't for me and I totally suck at it. (not that I ever did amazing work w my janome - but my first quilts (quilted on it) look waay better (quilting wise, not piecing wise ;-) than the ones I've done more recently. And that's just sad!) Point being - it's possible you don't like to FMQ because your machine doesn't like to....
I try to not compare myself to other quilters, but sometimes it's hard not to...
I adore your quilt!! It is just beautiful!! Your quilting is amazing! I also try to fmq in small things, but don't really like doing it. So I try to quilt with my walking foot, in a way that is quality for the quilt design. Rather than quantity!!
ReplyDeleteYour quilt is a treasure and inspiration!
Susie
I adore those mushrooms! And your quilt has an incredible design with the arrangement of the blocks and your quilting idea.
ReplyDeleteOf course we all compare, but although trying to reach perfection within your skill level is nice - it's also good to remember that there will always be better and "worse" people out there. So taking inspiration and encouragement from those “better people” is a great idea but we should aim to compare the skill building in our own work to not be disappointed.
This turned out wonderfully! And you're not alone, I am terrified of free motion quilting too. I always end up doing a stipple/meander or straight lines with my walking foot.
ReplyDeleteThat's a gorgeous whimsical soft little quilt and I love it! Comparisons!!! I never stop and I never measure up! I stay with straight line quilting on things that matter.
ReplyDeleteOMG, I really love this quilt! What a wonderful finish!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I do compare... And sometimes I find it discouraging. But then I read a post about someone who made faults and I think - okay, others struggle with the same problems :-) Some just don't write about their's and would never show it... :-)
Comparing myself to others gives me inspiration but I realise perfection only comes after lots of practice, care and attention. I'm happy doing the best I can after all there needs to be a reason to make the next quilt. If it were perfect then I'd not need to make another....
ReplyDeleteYour quilt is lovely - I love the scrapiness and the quilting is just right! Thanks for joining up to #scraptastictuesday