Friday 24 February 2012

February FMQ Challenge

I bet I'm not the only one who took one look at the February FMQ Challenge tutorial  over on SewCalGal's blog and blanched. Talk about being thrown in at the deep end - not only is the challenge for FEATHERS but Diane Gaudynski feathers at that !

It must be every quilters' dream to produce workmanship like this, but unfortunately, I am nowhere near this level of work.   I thought I did quite well with these quilts and
not too bad with this one ...



 ...but let's be honest I've still got a long way to go :-)

So onto this month's offering - first some practice.....



...not brilliant, but a couple of lessons learnt!

I must reposition my hands more often.
I must practice echo quilting -  this is awful
I must stop being afraid of my machine
I found these small feathers more difficult than larger ones on a quilt

Bearing all this in mind, for my folder sample I decide to go with what I feel I do best, and that's free form feathers a la Patsy Thompson which I've been practicing forever! Still not perfect, but something I feel more comfortable with.



Don't get me wrong, I am a great fan of Diane Gaudynski and her work,  and who knows - maybe one day I will be able to quilt these wonderful feathers !!





8 comments:

Sunnybec said...

Your feathers are lovely! I have just done my first feathers but I have to do them "my" way, I have tried doing them like other people do and they look a mess. I don't think it matters how you do them. x

Linda said...

Your feathers are gorgeous!

Quiet Quilter said...

I am going featherless...it is beyond my expertise...

Your block just gave me a Christmas idea...now to find oversized checkers for the oversized checkerboard... Thanks.

Marjorie's Busy Corner said...

I think you did a great job

QuiltSue said...

I think they all look great, but especially the last one.

Suzanne said...

I just looked to my right, where I have your quilt displayed, and your feather quilting is fantastic! I love my little quilt!

Sew Create It - Jane said...

I think your feathers look fab! I guess with any FMQ it is practice practice practice :o)

Brenda said...

Your feathers are fantastic, you need to do YOUR own feathers, develope your own style,they are the one's you'll do best. Once I stopped trying to do exactly what others were doing and did my own version - my work improved immensely! Just keep practicing!