I ordered two Angela Walters books recently. Free Motion Quilting and Shape by Shape. I had borrowed them from my BQF Vicki at Orchid Owl Quilts and quickly decided I needed to own them. Two days later they were at my front door. (Thank you Amazon Prime.) They are both fantastic books and well worth buying. I think the Shape by Shape book is my favorite so far.
I love that she breaks this book down into squares, circles, triangles, borders and negative space. That format makes it a great reference when you are staring at a quilt you don't know how to quilt.
Oh, that reminds me. If you are a Modern Quilt Guild member, Angela did a great webinar on deciding how to quilt your quilt. You should go to the MQG website and check it out.
So in quilting my Goldfish quilt, I tried out some of her designs. For example:
I tried this border design for a serpentine line for one of my orange borders.
Honestly, it can use some improvement. I would like my lines to be a bit more uniform. I need to practice this one some more. But the one I chose for the inner orange borders -
this Dot -to -Dot border, which had fabulous instructions -
I thought turned out pretty well. It gave that section a cool upholstered feel like it just needed orange buttons on the points. I used a double layer of batting with this quilt. The very last of my Hobbs 70/30 blend. I'm glad I did the double layer because it made these diamonds puff up nicely.
I had tried her signature design on my owl pouches from a few posts ago. I decided to use it again on the main section of the goldfish quilt.
I used a much thinner thread this time which made the quilting blend beautifully. I think I executed it better this time. Something to do with muscle memory I think. As you practice, your hands get better and doing what your brain is asking them to. Does that make sense?
I love how it looks like moving water currents. I can see why she likes to use this design so often.
I'll get the binding on and put up some completed pics soon. Hopefully this week.
But in the meantime, I definitely recommend this book. The diagrams are fantastic and easy to follow. She has tips for making it work and all kinds of variations on each design in each section. I really want to get better at my Free Motion Quilting and I think her books are going to be great tools to do so.
Thanks for visiting my blog. Have a quilty day!
Linking with Free Motion Maveriks at lizzielenard-vintagesewing.blogspot.co.uk
Your quilting looks really lovely! Lucky baby to have a quilt like this to cuddle with.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I hope the baby will get some good use out of it.
DeleteYes ~ that definitely looks like moving water! good call :-) I need to get waaaay better with my FMQ. I never want to take the time to practice, but that's precisely what I NEED to do...
ReplyDeleteI don't like to practice just for the sake of practicing. Which is why these little sibling mini quilts seemed like a perfect solution. I could practice while still producing something. What I need to practice (or let's be honest, attempt) is hand quilting. We should give each other lessons.
DeleteLovely quilting!
ReplyDeleteThis is inspiring and I will make a new sandwich today and practice! Great stitching, really really nice!
ReplyDeleteThanks for coming by. Glad I could give you a little inspiration. Happy practicing!
DeleteHello Ida,
ReplyDeleteWhat a gorgeous little quilt! Beautiful quilting, and the baby will be so snug and warm under it.
Thank you for linking up with Free Motion Mavericks.
Love, Muv