Sunday, August 10, 2008

Free motion quilting

I tried something new with a crazy quilt and quilted the entire surface. Not too sure if I like it and I don't think I will ever do it in this fashion again. It was too hard trying to ignore some of the hand stitched seams and get a nice free motion quilted pattern. Could also be that the quilt is so small. Anyway I have already started ripping out most of the quilting on the blue and green areas but will be leaving it on the flowers and the leafs. I think I will go back over with a bit less fussy machine quilting.

Here is a closer look at the machine quilting....
And on another note, I entered a quilt into the Houston Show and bummed that it was not selected. Ahh well, beter luck next year.

7 comments:

Jo in NZ said...

I like the idea of the free motion quilting Amy. How about doing it first next time, then doing your hand stitching. You could also maybe do a different "design" in each patch to create a "patterned" fabric.
Mix of traditional and contemporary, sane and crazy....nice.

Pat Winter Gatherings said...

Amy, I like the texture it added. This is very pretty. Free motion is adaptable to anything,we just never know until we try. Great job!
Pat

Denise said...

I just love your work. I check out your blog on a regular basis - your colour choices are fantastic!! I was going to suggest the same thing Jo did, perhaps quilt first then do FME. It would probably be more satisfying, not having to rip things out.
Cheers, Denise

allie aller said...

I think this is very tough to pull off, the quilting combined with the handstitching. I've never accomplished a good mix, and have tried!
Still, there must be the right formula, depending on the quilt...

I'm bummed your quilt didn't get into Houston as well. What was wrong with those jurists???

Kate North said...

I was going to say the same thing as Jo (GMTA!) - the quilting is great, add nice texture to the piece, but in order to avoid the problem with the seams, doing it first might work better. If you are worried about the back - tying off all the stitching, etc - I've doubled backed pieces like that - quilting heavily using ugly fabric as a backing, then adding all then (in my case) embellishments, the putting a new back on, heavily fused, with just a little stitching to hold it in place.

I do definitely think there's a place for using FMQ on pieces like that!

Crazypatch said...

Gorgeous....great work

GraceBeading said...

Amy, I don't know anything about free motion quilting, but I do know your work is stunning. The colors are so vibrant, it's always such a treat to drop in on your blog to see what you're up to