Going Loopy - Free Motion Quilted Cameo 7

Apologies for the delay - more internet problems that I won't bore you with.

Going Loopy - Free Motion Quilted Cameo 7

This cameo is all about loops - and some of the things that you can do with them. Very simple, but effective and easy to combine together to make a bigger pattern as here.

The 'chorus' line if you like, the one in between each variant, is a simple drawn out loop. As in all 3 patterns, it is echoed by an inversion with interlocking loops. The second, the curve between the loops is drawn into an angular V and in the central 3rd pattern, that V is echoed.

Enjoy.

Thanks for stopping by...

Hilary Florence

Ship Ahoy - free motion quilting cameo 5

This is a very open, spacious motif that gives lovely billowing curves that remained me of sails - hence the title. I have done this as a 'there and back' motif - inverting it on the 2nd and 4th columns. This is handy as it means you don't have to end and restart the thread with every row - but it would work equally as well with all the columns in one direction.

Ship Ahoy - fmq cameo 5

When you come to the end of the vertical line, I do find I have to think very carefully about turning right or left!

Thanks for dropping by

Hilary Florence

Looping the loop - Free motion quilting cameo No. 4

Today's cameo is quite a simple one, but never-the-less effective. Loops are easy to do and versatile in the extreme. Not only can each loop be a different height or breadth on its own, endless patterns are possible with how they are assembled together. Loops are also one of those motifs that induce a rhythmic meditative state to quilt.

looping the loop fmq No. 4

Here I have made  symmetrical diamond shapes, where what is not stitched becomes as much a part of the motif as what is stitched.

Thanks for dropping by

Hilary Florence

Catching up, bottles, UFOs and Free Motion Quilting

Blogger technical problems seem to have evaporated as suddenly as they appeared - both events seemingly without my intervention. So now I can catch up with some posts and share with you what I am up to sewing wise.

Revisiting an old UFO - an exercise in curved piecing using bottle shapes

Along side the 101 Free Motion Quilting Cameos, one of my projects for this year was to dig out and re-visit my UFOs (unfinished-objects). Having other work commitments has always meant that my imagination works quicker than my hands and time permit. I itch to get going with a new idea and my quilting life is littered with victims of my impatience to start something new before completing the current work.

I've recently blogged about bottle shapes and it is not the first time I've used them. A few years ago, I used them to practise curved piecing and made about 15 or so blocks, but never got around to sewing them together.

I decided, rather than to make one big piece I would make several smaller wall hangings. This would also give me the chance to try out several different quilting ideas.

3 bottle blocks added together to make a small wall-hanging

I started my quilter's life by dyeing material for the sheer love of colour. I got into piecing because it seemed to be the only thing to do with all this wonderful fabric I was creating. I got into curved piecing because I found stitching squares boring. And then I discovered the joys of free motion quilting and really got hooked.

I really wanted to use some of the designs from the cameos on this. So I've started out by quilting bottle outlines.

Bottle quilt - bottle shapes outlined in quilting

 The shapes are echoed - and I didn't want the lines to be totally parallel - although I've got one or two wobbles more than I wanted!!

Detail showing outlines to be quilted

Detail showing bottle shaped outlines to be quilted

This does make very awkward shapes to quilt - should be interesting!

Thanks for dropping by...

Hilary

Underneath the Arches - fmq cameo 3

As much as I admire the skill of many free motion quilters, particularly long-arm quilters, to make each motif a clone of the previous one, I actually don't aim for total accuracy. I don't like it too look too machine like. I like the phrase 'consitantly inconsitant'. I also love playing around with size, scale and density.

Underneath the arches, one of my original designs also shows a technique I use a lot, namely building up rows to create and area of texture.  It is a 'there and back' design. The 'there' creates the arch and foot, and coming back I echo the arches.

Fmq 3 - Underneath the Arches

Thanks for dropping by...

A sensuous curve too far

Now for a free motion quilting interlude - which is another way of saying that I could never stick to one thing at a time. Somehow the ideas in my head queueing up to get out are too impatient to wait their turn. Impatience is great for creativity but not too good for finishing things in a hurry! I usually have several things on the go at once.

Time for a bit of procion paper play

Procion paper play is all about thickening up some procion dyes with manutex and printing, rolling, painting, dribbling, splashing them about on paper. Anything goes really. It is a great way to explore, experiment and play with no goal in mind - just discover what come out.

Bottles are a gift for quilters - all those sensuous curves. I've been meaning to explore exploiting them for ages. A clear out had left me with a pile of old folder dividers and I decided I could up-cycle these into masks and stencils. I perfect opportunity to make something for nothing and feel virtuous about reducing my rubbish. The idea - gleaned from an article on making stencils - was to paint them in acrylic to make them waterproof. I expected them to curl up when the first side was painted. I expected them - as per article - to lie flat again when I painted the reverse side. Not so. My stencils, not having read the article, decided to corkscrew. I know that I wanted sensuous curves, but that was taking things too far!

It was also quite time consuming, messy and used up a lot of acrylic paint - and probably cost a lot more than simply cutting them out of acetate. Ah well - I tried.

Here are the un-corkscrewed stencils, weighed down by stones to keep them flat...

stencils made from painted dividers - weighed down to stop corkscrewing

and the masks.

masks made out of old dividers, waterproofed with acrylic paint

This first one uses a couple of the masks and stencils, apply the dye with a sponge roller. Sponge rollers are very dye hungry and soak up a lot of dye-paint, but I do like the texture they give.

Procion paper play - bottle masks and stencils

detail

For this one I've limited myself to just one bottle shape. It's done with a brayer, which gives a totally different texture. It looks thicker, glopier, much more messy, but therefore there is more textural interest. I used electic blue and mustard yellow, which I think give a lovely colour combination. Areas under the mask were of course white, and I've gone over these with lemon yellow.

Blue and yellow bottle procion paper play

Blue and yellow bottles - detail

The last two from this session are cheerfully chuby. Again the sencil and mask give the postive and negative shape. I've used the sponge roller again and given a bit of extra colour with a light rolloing of magenta. I might give it a colour wash at some stage to colour in the white.

Cheerfully chubby bottles in yellows and organges with a bit of magenta

Detail

Back to the quilting next.

Thanks for dropping by.

fmq cameo 2 Figures of Eight

Here is the next cameo, several days later than promised. I hadn't reckoned with technical difficulties - such as not being able to open a new post - does make things a bit difficult! As you can see, I've made it with umpteen clicks and going around in circles. The last post was 'we have lift off' - I was tempted and call this one 'and we've crashed'! I've also just seen on the preview that the picture has publised twice. It isn't there twice on the original post page, so can't fix that. Definately something wrong here. Sorry.

Anyway, technical difficulties apart - here is number 2. Figures of eight are not original I know, but I have never seen their versatility exploited (let me know if you have). You can change the height, breadth, size of loop, how spaced out they are... Here I have done them in undulating columns. The photo doesn't really show how they 'negative' space between the columns also then stands out and becomes a feature. When stitched in colour, changing the size and thus the density of the pattern gives the illusion of darker and lighter shade. It is also great to quilt as  you can get into a lovely swinging rhythm.

fmq cameo 2 - Figures of Eight

Enjoy and thanks for dropping by

101 free motion quilting cameos - we have lift off!

Welcome to the launch of my project - 101 free motion quilting cameos - and the very first one!

The project was born out of a desire to make a record of my quilting ideas that was more cohesive than note books and odd scrapes of paper. I thought they deserved a more permanent home. 

So here is one of my all time favourites - Angel Flight. I certainly didn't create it thinking of angels. Like most fmquilters, I doodle a lot. It is lovely to quilt and easy to get in to the swing of those gorgeous curves.

1. Angel Flight

I've done it with a half-drop repeat and two way. It works just as well one way.

Number two will be in a few days time.

Thanks for dropping by

P.S. Just in case you are wondering, no I have not completed preparing all 101 squares since my last post. I've done enough to know that I do not want a career making coasters!

Four corners turned, four hundred to go and the faults of mental masterpieces

The beauty of my mental masterpieces are that they are so easy. Mostly I think of them in quiet daydreaming moments, in bed, sitting in the garden...

'Mental masterpieces' are a mental picture of the finished article - which is good to know where you are aiming, but they are delightfully vague as to process of getting there. In this instance, I had an image of  my 6" indigo square, quilted in white, but didn't really think about assembling, trimming, turning, pressing and edging times four hundred and four.

Ah well, here is the first square ready for quilting.

First square all ready for quilting

One down - one hundred - and four hundred corners to turn- to go!

Thanks for dropping by...