Free Motion Quilting Academy

At the beginning of 2020 I started a program called Free Motion Quilting academy Thru the String and Story blog.  Holly, a young quilter who I follow is the blogger.   Well, in the last year she has become very popular! She has had a big, successful program and now has a large following.  

 Me, on the other hand, I have felt less success from her program.  Mostly, because the entire COVID year of 2020 took over this nurses life.  I am a self-taught free motion quilter and a little experienced.  I took this class to improve and expand my skills.   I started off well.  Not at the pace I wanted, because it started during my project quilting time, but that did give me a jump start at completing a few quilts and modules.

Jump forward a little over a year and the worst of the COVID nightmare I hope.  Things are starting to flow for me and work is slowing down.  So I made myself a goal and project list for 2021.  I initially did not put finishing this class on it, but now, I am.  So along with one of those goals here I am.  This quilt is the Ultimate beginner quilt by fat quarter shop.  

I am going to go thru the blocks on the quilt, one by one to show what designs I did in the program and my current feeling.

This first block highlights the pattern “Ripply River” in the points and Woodgrain between. The sashing highlights continuous loops and some swirls at intersections. 

The inner block is a “swirl”, then “ribbon candy”, followed by “spiral chains”. 

This shows an entire block of “embellished squares”.  I soo like this design but need to get a Rythm, that I don’t have.. 

The center of this block was done in “Filled Swirls” and the outer in “hooked swirls”

This is another “embellished squares” with “double curves”. The sashing is a basic loop and swirls.

In this one you can see the “paisleys” down the Arrows and “pebbles” in the center and outer. 

The center is imitating ruler work, but free handed instead 

The rows in this block rotate from switch back to basic loops aka telephone cord loops. 

So this block contains the stitch I struggle most with the most, embellished continuous curves in the 4 patches.  I just can’t get my rhythm.  Then I did the loops in the triangles. 

In this block I filled it with lots and lots of hooked swirls.  I think I’m pretty decent at these. 

And for the last of 12 blocks, we have a block full of wishbones!! I sooo love how these look and honestly use them a lot!! 

I still have a lot to do and really, a lot to prefect in FMQ, but the more I do it, the better I get!! 

All of these photos were taken at Mepkin Abbey,  it’s sooo peaceful and I love the many spaces that complement quilts.