Tuesday, September 21, 2010

FMQA - Lines and Angles

I spent some time this evening practicing lines and angles as part of the free motion quilt along (FMQA) led by Christina at A Few Scraps.

I practiced making the various shapes on paper first, pretty much copying what she did.  I liked her suggestions.

There's a rhythm to drawing these out, a "beat" to the repetitive pen strokes on paper.  Sometimes a song would pop into my head from that.  I also thought of names for most of the designs, which sometimes related to whatever song I heard in my head, as well as the overall look of a design.

For example, here's what I came up with on this page, from left to right:
  • Name:  Frankenstein.  Song:  "Frankenstein" by Edgar Winter Group
  • Name:  Snore
  • Name:  Gap Tooth
  • [Nothing came to mind]
  • Name:  Pueblo
  • [Yuck. Had trouble drawing this one.]
  • Name:  T-Square.  Song:  "Green Onions" by Booker T & the MGs.
  • Name:  Elf Ears
And on this page, left to right:
  • Name:  Telephone Line.  Song:  "Telephone Line" by ELO, and "Telephone Song" by Stevie Ray Vaughan.
  • Name: [Nothing came to mind].  Song:  "I Know What I Am" by Band of Skulls.
  • Name:  Kite Tails (Christina's very apt description).
  • Name:  Yard Sale Signs
  • Name:  Stringed Peas
  • Name:  Spiral Sixes
  • Name:  P's, G's & Q's (I felt like I was writing those letters).
When it came to quilting these shapes, it was a whole 'nother story.  I put on some music but not what you might expect:  Classical music on public radio.  Classical music doesn't distract me when I'm concentrating, and believe me, I was about to be concentrating.

I'm still all over the map with my machine speed, stitch length, etc.  That's just going to take some time and more practice.

What I learned was that it helped to pause a bit at the point of an angle or else it'd be rounded.  And doing plain zig-zaggy stitching was harder than it looked.

Also?  Those kite tails were freakin' ridiculous to stitch!  I gave up and went on to some funky looking stars instead.  I kind of like how they turned out.

My favorite is—gee, wouldn't you know I didn't name that one, but it looks like Post-It Notes on alternating sides of a string (far right in the pic below).  I also like the retro look of Telephone Line (third from right below), although it was a little tricky to get the hang of at first.

So that's the second week's report.  I wish, for your sakes, my practice quilt wasn't quite so fugly, but for me it's what I needed—no pressure to make anything pretty, just to get on with it.
 

7 comments:

GaAm said...

Some of those look extremely complicated, and I like the stars on a string better than a kite string. I think they look awesome, and, since no two stars are alike, it doesn't matter if they aren't exact. Right?

I'm in awe. If I tried that, it would look terrible. I still have trouble just keeping my stitching going in a straight line. :P

Michelle said...

Wow! I'm so impressed. Fantastic! I like your funky stars (going to remember that). Sheesh gal, I think you're good to go. :-)

Shay said...

Okay you shamed me into it. I'll try this weekend.

Love some of those patterns. I agree with Michelle, you're ready to be let loose on the world errr I mean a quilt.

a.M. said...

This is really cool!

svelteSTUFF said...

HI! I'm glad you dropped by and said 'hello'. It's always wonderful to meet a fellow HAEGER admirer... especially one that can appreciate Mauve agate 8-)

HOPE to see lots more of your collection!!!

Kay Lynne said...

Your quilting is great! I seen your comment on Flicker about how to do the flowers. The best way is to show you how. I will post a tutorial on my blog Sunday or Monday on how to do it. I'm completely new to flicker and this was the only way I knew how to contact you. Your blog is very nice :)

http://kayzquiltz.blogspot.com/

Elizabeth said...

Your FM is coming along really nicely! I'm slowly wading through my projects so I can get there too! And I don't even notice your 'fugly' quilt top -- your quilting is the focus. Beautiful!