FMQ Practice

I've been doodling and trying ideas for FMQ.  This is one of the leaf patterns from the Ojibwe Inspired Applique 

I'm very pleased with the fill, but the stippling that I used distracts from the interesting fill for the leaf.  Next time I'll try something geometric like lines or grid that will show off the curves.

I checked out a couple library books on machine trapunto.  I had some wash away thread which I bought for basting but hated.  But it worked well for this technique.  I traced some flowers and leaves from the Esther Aliu Hearts Desire pattern with a wash away pen on the yellow - white chalk pencil on the green.  I used a layer of poly batting under this fabric (I used spray basting to hold them together)  and FMQ the outline using wash-away thread on the top and white on the bobbin.

  Then with embroidery scissors, I trimmed the batting close to the stitching lines.

I think this might look better with a denser, high loft poly batting, at least for the flowers....but this is all I had.

I added a layer of cotton batting and a piece of backing fabric.  I also used some applique pins in addition to the spray baste just to make sure everything stayed together.

My basting lines for the batting were very wobbly in places, so I liked this approach as I had a second chance to follow the outline with the real thread layer and improve the shape of anything that looked wonky.

My camera didn't catch the details very well.  I used straight(ish) lines in the green about 1/4" apart which helped make the leaves pop.  I made the lines intentionally wiggly on the yellow sections, but the same distance apart.   I used a varigated yellow to outline the flowers - Next time, I'll stick with a dark gold.  The background thread on the yellow is a pale yellow.

Here's the back.  I used off-white in the bobbin for this whole square as I wanted the back to be all yellow/cream so the final quilt will be dark fall colors on the front and pale spring colors on the back.

And in case you are wondering why my FMQ panels are all pieced, it's because I  had designed a quilt in fall colors that was long strips of green, gold & red and figured out a way to break that into 42 practice panels.   Last night and this morning I  finished cutting out and piecing all the panels using old stash material!

I started FMQ in May 2011 and I'm struggling with a bunch of advanced FMQ designs in my head, with only advanced-beginner skills.