October Free Motion Quilting Challenge
I am posting my Free Motion Quilting Challenge early this month as I will be attending both Pacific International Quilt Festival and Houston International Quilt Festival as well as teaching twice locally-tough life! I am afraid to put it off this month.
Our tutorial was presented by Teri Lucas-I love her work! I’ve been following her blog for awhile and I love how she is able to morph her motifs into each other for a beautiful, cohesive look. 
And that was our challenge this month: to combine motifs in pleasing ways. Teri suggested we start out by quilting our name in cursive and echoing that, but I opted out of that part. I’ve had this vision in my mind for awhile of a tree bending in the wind-bending but not breaking.
I layered white silk dupioni, flat cotton batting and a sturdy cotton backing together and free motion quilted it using 100 wt. Superior silk thread on top and Bottom Line in the bobbin. I used navy silk dupioni for my binding. I marked the feather spines and the boxes.
This back view is a mirror image of the front-no surprises here! In the bottom area I tried to do what Teri asked us to do in the tutorial, combining several motifs in a pleasing way. It could flow a little better but that’s all part of the learning curve.
I am pleased that all four corners turned well on the binding-a rare occurrence that deserves notice! I love how the motif can actually be seen 15′ away due to the high value contrast, unlike most of my other whole cloth work. You do have to have some chutzpah to use navy thread on white silk-every flaw shows!
It is a departure for me to use flat batting and in this case I like the flatness of this piece. I used Misty Fuse to baste the layers together and it worked beautifully on this flat batting. I priced it out and Misty Fuse is actually a good bargain compared to other double sided fusibles. I think I will do a mini-tutorial showing how I did this.
I could see doing more work like this-I like the look.
Jenny, I love, love, love this! It’s absolutely beautiful. Thank you for the compliment and I hope to meet you in Houston.
Teri
Yes, hope to meet you too!
Beautiful tree, gorgeous design!
Thank you Pat!
Beautiful! I have been working on the sketching part so you have encouraged me to get to the machine! Enjoy the quilt shows!
Wonderful-sketch away and have fun with the machine!
This is absolutely stunning. I especially like the echo quilted bottom strip and I love the high contrast. Don’t forget to take some deep breaths during your upcoming “marathon.”
Thank you! I am amazed at how effective echo quilting can be.
This is a beautiful piece. I think the corner flows well. Am looking forward to seeing your work at PIQF.
I was at PIQF today-wish I had more time to be there! Enjoy yourself and keep those vendors in business, giggle.
WOW, Jenny — this is spectacular! I wish I was close enough to take one of your classes! Please post pictures from PIQF and HIQF if you are able to. I’d love to see what inspires you! :-)
Thank you. I will be posting photos from both shows-I know I love seeing them when other people go to shows I could not see.
just stunning!
Thank you!
Breathtaking. Absolutely stunning. Great job Jenny.
SewCalGal
http://www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com
Oh, this is absolutely beautiful! I’m glad you had your own ideas. It worked out well!
Beautiful! Judge’s eye view: The knoll below the tree could use one or two lines of echo quilting to balance the quilting intensity of the piece. Could be done in the white like the background. Not supposed to remake the piece but a ‘poochy’ spot shows up. A ‘piece needs more quilting’ comment would not make sense. Perhaps ‘quilting intensity should be consistent’! Whatever, it is a wonderful image.
Thanks Helen. I did think about that space-I actually like the negative space in the “ground” of the tree-with the flat batting it doesn’t pooch too much and I thought it gave the eye a bit of a rest? I do recognize it leaves me open for the “quilting intensity” comment though-giggle!
Gorgeous, you have inspired me to try feathers again. Have fun teaching, lucky students! I want to try a tree like that!
Thanks Roxane-I do love feathers, not that you can tell…
Whoa! This is fabulous Jenny! I love,love, love the tree!
Thank you Laura-surely somewhere on this earth there are feather trees!
This is fabulous! So imaginative, and so well done! (I’m looking forward to that tutorial on basting with Misty Fuse!)
I add my “wow” to the group! I adore feathers and particularly the kind you did with little curlycues and surprises in them. I like the randomness of it. I’m so looking forward to Houston but I have a big wedding to go to first. Happy travels!
Thank you! I just had to add something new to the feathers. Hope you make Houston!
This is just stunning!!! I love how you have interpreted this month’s challenge.
I love this quilting :-))))
Thank you! This one was a lot of fun for me.
Muy bonito. Esperaré ese tutorial.
Thank you!