Free Motion Quilting

I'm soooooo over sending out my tops to be quilted. I never was really comfortable wit the people who did mine here in town, so I've just been saving tops. I have tons all ready. Some are even basted. Sometimes I just quit toward the end of making a quilt so I don't have another one, but I end up with UFOs.

 So a few weeks ago I took a free motion class. I think I may have mentioned it before. I enjoyed the class, and I learned a lot about thread and a start on patterns, but out of a class from 10:00 to 3:00, we only practiced about 20 minutes which was totally not enough. I was pretty darn disappointed. I was depressed a couple of days, but I practiced some, but never really found my rhythm.

 But I did find this wonderful site I want to share. It's by Leah Day and it's a Gallery of Free Motion Design.  It has 396 free motion designs with short videos to show you how to do them! It goes from Super Beginner (me) to difficult.  I've  been looking at the designs and practicing on paper.

Last week I went to the 70% close out sale (sob) of a nearby quilt shop, Sew Bee It.  I got the panel below and the coordinating fabric for a border and maybe the back, depending!  I'm going to go with some sort of spiral I think, practice a little, and just go for it.   I'll probably try different designs as I go.  My grandkids won't care what it looks like.  They don't even notice the quilting! Ha!  (As proof I could show you a favorite that is just a mutilated stitch in the ditch, but I won't.)

I'm really looking forward to get good enough to dig out all those tops!!