Is it the New Year yet?

Okay, my goal was to get through the 2012 Free-Motion Challenge during 2012, and by golly, I do believe I’m going to make it.  I have one more month to do – that’s tomorrow’s task.  Here is the result of today’s (non-stop) sewing frenzy flurry.

First up was the lovely feather design that required a lot of back tracking.  I used the tulle tracing method.

You can see I traced it onto a white background and some black linen as well.  And here is the design quilted:

Ugh.  The flow is not smooth.  While my back-tracking is improving, it’s a long way from perfect.  What did I learn doing this design?  One: I need a lot more practice at stitching over a drawn design before I’d be satisfied with the results.  Two: I’m not highly motivated to practice this particular aspect of free motion quilting. 

It’s not that I can’t see the value in it.  I can.  But there are so many continuous line designs that are really quite lovely, I don’t see me choosing something like this instead.  Still, a learning experience.  Though I admit, I’ve already washed that design off the black linen since it’s clear to me I am not going to be quilting this up again. 

And then came the next month which was the exact opposite end of the spectrum: completely free-form.

Hmmm.  Feathers and me still have a long way to go.  That swirly thing in the lower right is meant to be a conch shell.  I’m not sure what it looks like exactly but a sea shell doesn’t leap to my mind.  I didn’t care for the grid in the lower left at all.  I do like the circles though.  While this little guy is a pretty good indicator of just how far I have to go, I like it as a record of where I’m currently at.  It’s also the direction that does interest me in free-motion quilting.  I like the idea of densely quilted varying designs put together. 

And then, one last push for the day: spirals.

First, there was drawing.  Lots and lots of drawing:

Sarah Vedeler provided the pdf’s with the spirals ready to trace.  That was a truly awesome thing.  It helped me so much to have those designs to trace, and then another grid to free draw my own.

Here they are quilted:

Yes, I’ve got a lot to learn, but so far this has felt like a great learning experience.  The instructors have been wonderful and I’ve learned a ton.  I’ve also signed up for Craftsy classes from three of the quilters and I’m looking forward to really diving into those in the coming weeks. 

In the spirit of Les Mis, all I can say is: one more day, one day more!