Friday, July 20, 2012

G.O. Quilting

After sharing my G.O. Modern quilt this week, I had several requests for more detail about my quilting of each block. Understand that it was challenging for me on many levels . . . the size of the quilt alone is large for my quilting space . . . the variety of colors in the blocks had me switching out thread colors right and left (3 shades of gray, orange, and white) . . . I'm still a newbie when it comes to free-motion quilting especially, and after struggling with turning and shifting the quilt for my work with the walking foot, I found fmq 'easier' because it called for less turning. But that meant I tried all sorts of patterns I had never attempted before.

But in the interest of full disclosure, process-sharing, and all that good stuff, I'm going to show you - up close and personal. I don't even know the names of everything I tried, but I'll tell you the best I can. So I'll start with the top row, moving left to right in each row. Here goes.

fmq, horizontal loops, brand new but felt great

 fmq, wandering swirls, one of my standards

fmq, oblong pebbles, new to me & harder than 'regular' pebbles, 
but not too bad

walking foot, vertical organic straight-line, one of my standards

walking foot, random lines, easy & quick

walking foot, horizontal organic straight-line

fmq, loops in each triangle, a little hard to fill each space evenly

fmq, vertical organic straight-line with swirls, I love this & it really flows

fmq, circle swirls around edge with "hills" in the center, both new to me and "so-so"

walking foot, echoed straight-line, easy but alot of turning

walking foot, stitch-in-the-ditch, sounds like it should be easy but hard for me to get accurate

fmq, swirly circle in a circle, new to me & pretty successful

 fmq, "flowers" in center then loops in corners, new to me &
 felt out of control

fmq, elongated tubes, not perfect but fun

walking foot, echo-stitched in each quadrant, this is the one that prompted "OH MY GOSH" the most & the last one I did 
with the walking foot

 fmq, pebbles, had done before & I felt pretty comfortable with

 walking foot, kind of in-the-ditch grid, I don't like it

fmq, wandering swirls in each square, this was fun

 walking foot, vertical wavy stitch, quick & easy

fmq, elongated tubes in sections, went well

Whew! There ya go! 

31 comments:

  1. I loved seeing all the things you tried Debbie and your mini 'review' of each - thank you for sharing.

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  2. wow, great work debbie!! serious motivator to get myself into gear and work on my fmq'ing! beautiful quilt!

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  3. Looks great Debbie. I'm impressed about how you selected different designs for each block. Aren't you thrilled whenever you look at it?

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  4. Well, you got a lot of practice on your fmq skills, didn't you? They all look great and it's interesting to read your thoughts about them. I kept scrolling back and forth trying to pick out a favorite. I really want to try some of the loopy/swirly ones like 1 and 7. Great work, Debbie!

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  5. So cool!
    Very fun to see how many different things you tried!
    I love the straight lines -- especially on the Oh My Gosh block. And I have to try the vertical organic straight line with swirls.

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  6. Thanks for sharing your hard work! It really is a beautiful quilt, love to see the up close and personal! I love thee the swirls and the organic straight line.

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  7. Wow, wow, and wow! I loved seeing both the quilting and the blocks up close!

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  8. My goodness, that seems like a lot of work! I love that you tried something different in each one, even though some worked better than others. Way to stretch yourself!

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  9. I love how you quilted each block differently. It's perfect for this quilt!

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  10. You DID exactly what I've been saying I need/want to do - My sampler bee blocks will be a great one to try this type of variety on. I really like the elongated loops and your flowers.

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  11. Oh my WOW!!!! Thanks for breaking it down by telling how each "felt"- It really makes a difference to get an idea, in comparison to other fmq, how each felt- that is always hard to guess and you helped me get a handle on a few I was wondering about! Thanks!- and they look lovely!! ALL of them :)

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  12. Thanks for sharing an up close of what you did, Deb. You've done a great job of jumping in and trying new things. I need to do the same. I was so disappointed with my attempt at quilting Cole's quilt (Faith Circle). I was using a walking foot and trying for organic straight lines...thought it would be so easy. But that quilt was so large and the weight of it was too new to me. My stitch length kept getting super tiny. I need to not give up, but keep trying and it will probably get easier. Thanks again for sharing :)

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  13. Awesome. Very adventurous of you!!

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  14. Wonderful to see everything that you tried and your thoughts on it, Debbie! I really need to branch out more in my quilting techniques, and this gave me some good ideas!

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  15. All very cool, thanks for the walkthrough. I think my favourites are the oblong pebbles and the flowers :o)

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  16. Those look great! I like the echo in the quadrant the most - I laughed when you said it was the one that caused you to say omgosh the most. LOL

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  17. You did such a great job! What a good idea to try different quiltings on each block. It gives your quilt a speziell look - very cool!

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  18. Wow that's a lot of quilting! Great job on trying out new patterns! Love them all =D

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  19. I'm very impressed! You are extremely patient. what kind of machine do you have?

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  20. Thank you for sharing all of the blocks and quilting, I truly love all of it. I also just love these blocks, what a wonderful quilt.

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  21. I just finished a table runner with fmq today, then read this post. I really need the practice, and your quilting has inspired me! Now I have some ideas for my next project. Thanks!

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  22. The Oh My Gosh block is my favourite! The desing is so perfect for the block. They all look terrific.

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  23. Stunning quilt. I really like your color choices. The tangerine does indeed pop!

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  24. Wow! I love each and every one! Thank you for taking the time to show each block and great commentary x

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  25. Thanks for sharing all the different blocks and quilting. It's a great way to try lots of quilting motifs. How do you handle stopping and starting when you do straight line quilting that ends in the middle of the quilt somewhere as opposed to being able to go off the edge?

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  26. i love how brave you are in sharing all of these. i'm so judgemental of my own quilting but we do learn so much from each other and it helps to see other people try new things. thank you for showing it all up close and personal :)

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  27. WOW! Thank-you for taking the time to give a mini-review on each of the types of quilting that you used! This quilt turned out fabulous!!

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