March FMQ Challenge

The March FMQ Tutorial is by Ann Fahl and has a ton of info on FMQ and a couple of doodley fills.   She offered a few variations and after drawing them on paper, decided that only 2 interested me enough to commit to fabric.

She suggested a stippling variation that alternates what she refers to as "loop & twist".  I would have called it loop & villi.  Well, at least my version of it looks like that.  My paper doodle had softer waves b/w the loops, but when I pulled out practice quilt #1, I decided to try the fill on a narrow green strip so I could use some Wonder Fill Egyptian Cotton, variegated green that I had in the thread bin.  I'm not loving it.  My thought at this point is that it's just awkward for a narrow strip fill.

So I moved to a different section and tried the spiral fill/flower variation.  I have always liked double loops that I refer to as "olives".  This idea added a couple more rounds then petals.  What I LOVE about this is that instead of trying to exactly repeat the spiral, or echo it...you just take off after the swirl is done to another area.

I really had fun with this.  I made fat squat petals, and long skinny ones, big flowers, little ones, partial flowers.  It was really fun.  I like the variety.  I will do this again.

I moved on to practice using the leaves from my Ojibwe Bead work inspired quilt.  The last practice panel, the stippling detracted from the fancy leaf design.  So I decided to keep the leaf plain and fuss up the background.

I like it better, but I have now come to the conclusion that I don't really like stippling in general.

It's a fast way to fill things in, but I'm not convinced that it's really the fill for me.  Which just popped in my head to the tune of KT Tunstall " Black Horse in the Cherry Tree"

Whoo Hoooo, Whoo HOO.  No, no...no, no, no! You're not the one for me...no, no...no no no! You're not the fill for me.