Show you wings blog hop
Welcome to For the love of geese, glad you stopped by to see my wings. Boy I sure wish I could have gotten a better photo of my birds and wisteria. Thank you Carol @ Just Let Me Quilt for another great hop.
Flying geese are allowed in this hop and normally I would take full advantage of this and share many flying geese quilts or blocks. Since I’ve been toying with ideas for an applique quilt I decided to leave the geese in the pond. The Show Your Wings blog hop provided the inspiration to test my idea in a block and try a new to me technique.
If you visit me regularly you know that I love flying geese. So much so, very few quilts I’ve made do not include them. Flying geese or lack of in quilt designs is the reason I began designing my own quilts. My applique quilt will not include flying geese.
The wisteria practice block is not going into a quilt so I tried my hand at free motion stitching, no batting but I did use a stabilizer. It was more difficult than it appears. I like the freedom free motion provides to add detail. There’s a lot of room for my improvement. My palms and finger tips are soft and I found myself pinching the fabric to move it under the needle. If I decide to use this method again I will have to buy some finger rubbers to grip the fabric.
What I learned?
A new respect for anyone who fmq on their domestic. It’s not as easy as it looks.
Butterflies
Fast forward a couple weeks. The butterfly quilts weren’t in my plans when I joined the hop.
Well, I tried fmq again around my appliques , no batting, just stabilizer and no finger rubbers. The results were a little better. Maybe it was more humid or perhaps my palms were a little rougher from painting walls and all the hand washing. Whatever it was, no slips and I was able to grip the fabric better. There’s still room for improvement, although I think I’m getting the hang of it.
If you’ve never tried fmq I recommend you give it a try.
My new favorite method for taking photo’s…snow! The weekend of Jan 12th we got A LOT of it. In fact I didn’t think it would ever stop. When all was said and done we ended up with a little more than a foot of the white stuff. Our driveway is long and hilly with a few bends and it took my dh 2 days to plow it.
The light blue background fabric does not photograph well, normally. Apparently it requires snow as the backdrop . Isn’t it a gorgeous blue?
The butterfly templates came from Favequilts. You can find them HERE. The floral corners were my creation.
My latest quilt with flying geese
There’s no way I can leave the geese in the pond. I just cant help myself, I had to include something with flying geese. Mirage, doesn’t it look out of place in the snow? I miss everything green in the winter and this mini is a warm welcome. It’t the only thing hanging on the wall in my new sewing room.
This was my February Island Batik challenge. You can read more about the mini here.
Now, go grab a cup of something warm to drink and scroll down. Be sure to visit other blogs participating in the hop. One more thing before you go, check back March 1st. I’ll be sharing my March Island Batik challenge and a free paper pieced pattern.
Thank you Carol-Just Let Me Quilt for another fun blog hop.
February 18
February 19
Quilts Fabric and Thread Tales
February 20
February 21
For The Love Of Geese- you are here
Beautiful Denise! You did an awesome job! I tried FMQ one time and did such a bad job that I haven’t done it again. They say it gets better the more you try. Practice makes perfect. Thank you for sharing today.
The butterflies were my second attempt and I think they turned out better. After I finish 2 quilts I’ll be trying once again with something a little different. You should really try it again. It can’t be worse than what I shared with the world right? Thank you for stopping by and for the encouragement.
Cool project. Thank you for sharing! Enjoy your weekend! 🙂 🙂 angielovesgary2 atgmail dotcom
Thank you for stopping by.
FMQ is a fun challenge and practicing is the only way to get better at it for sure. I really like your quilts and am crazy for your Island Batik mini. It’s gorgeous.
Thank you Carla
Thank You for Hopping and sharing your Wings.
Oh thank you for joining in and stopping by.
Your wisteria does look like grapes, but that’s poetic license for you…anything goes. I think it’s cool to make stuff that doesn’t look like just one thing. Thanks for sharing a plethera of wingy projects.
Thank you for stopping by. The whole point was for a “lets see if I can make this” block. I still like it, grapes, wisteria, olives, doesn’t really matter. My soon to be dil loved it for a wall hanging.
Your free motion quilting is looking good. Wisteria is hard to capture in fabric and you have done a lovely job of it. The birdies add a nice touch. Thank you for sharing in the hop … 🙂 Pat
I agree, the wisteria looks more like grapes. But that’s okay, it was and is a learning experience. Thank you.
The wisteria and swallows is lovely. And the butterflies are pretty, too. I keep threatening to try FMQ. Eventually I will.
Thank you. You should try it, it was eye opening.
Thanks for showing a variety of Winged quilts for the Hop! I didn’t recognize that last one as being a Flying Geese quilt. Who knew?!
I like to distort flying geese to create movement and/or depth. Thank you for stopping by.
Hi Denise! What lovely and fun projects you share with us today. My favorite is your butterflies, the unexpected project. Your wisteria and the birds are lovely – and your fabric choices are just spot on. Congrats on feeling more comfortable with FMQ on your domestic machine. I always use gloves when I’m quilting. It has eliminated the need for that death grip on the fabric, and removing tension from the whole process is a good thing! ~smile~ Roseanne
Thank you for the kind words Rosanne. See, I do butterflies in the snow too.
Nice finish! FMQ takes some practice. I too love the Machingers gloves. The less expensive ones with the grippers on the fingers are too heavy for me personally. I took a class long ago on FMQ and the instructor had us stitch on a small quilt sandwich. She cut small, 3-4″ pieces of fabrics that had a design in them and layed them on top. We followed the design and continued to stitch off them. It was amazing how your mind keeps you going even when there is nothing to follow. I need to go back to that again from time to time.
Hmm, I didn’t think about sketching a line to follow. Thank you, I will definitely try that next time.
so pretty. you do wonderful work thanks for sharing and for inspiring today.
Thank you.
Your birds and wisteria are beautiful in the fabrics you chose and as for FMQ, it does take practice. I’m not very good at it, but I wear quilting gloves and it makes a huge difference. I even wear them if I’m doing a piece with a lot of applique pieces. The butterflies and your quilting look beautiful to me. Mirage is stunning! Thank you for hopping and sharing your wings with us!
Awe thank you so much for your kind words and organizing the hop. See you in April.
A great project! I want to learn FMQ on my domestic machine, so my next project is to finish some placemats for my oldest grandchild. I saw that you are from southern Illinois, and I wondered where. I am originally from southern IL. I lived in Mount Vernon and West Frankfort. My grandparents lived in Akin, Thompsonville, Benton, and Chester. I have family living in Marion and Chester now.
You should try fmq. I grew up in Alton but have lived about 6 miles outside of Grafton since ’92. My dh worked for a construction co that built a subdivision in Mt Vernon. A few years ago we drove to Christopher to get an antique desk. I knew people who lived in Benton and a few in Chester. Thank you for stopping by.
Thanks for sharing your lovely projects! While I like them all, I especially like those butterfly quilts. Gorgeous! Keep up the good work with FMQing. I use Machingers (gloves) when I quilt and like them better than anything else I’ve used.
Thank you, I will look into them.
Your projects are all wonderful! I really love the birds and wisteria.
Thank you, although I think the wisteria looks like grapes, lol.
Glad you are discovering the fun of FMQ and thread work. It will open up all sorts of options for you!
Years ago I would do some machine stitching in my appliques to show detail but nothing like this. Can you imagine how long it would have taken to add this detail if the foot had been on? It wont take long for me to catch on.
What a lovely collection of wings. Thank you for sharing them with us this morning. Your FMQ is coming along nicely.
Thank you
Well done. I love how it came out. I am glad you didn’t leave the geese in the pond. As once I finish my comment I am heading over to that post as you got my attention.
There is still a lot of room for improvement but I think adding detail to shapes with fmq is something I should continue to explore. Thank you for stopping by.