FMQ-Tiling

This project was made as part of a Craftsy course:
Machine Quilting Negative Space »

Materials

100% bleached muslin, 80/20 batting, 70wt. Connecting Threads Essential Pro Longarm poly thread, size 16 needle, HQ Avante Longarm,

What was your inspiration?

Angela Walters instruction and her thorough class materials.

What are you most proud of?

That I let myself go and just did it. I donate my scrap batting, cuttings from a quilt I trim after I take it off of the frame and my practice pieces to a woman in our guild who uses these items to stuff pet beds for the local animal shelter. I despise the binding process of quilting and usually pass that task on to someone else. However, I am binding my practice piece from this class and keeping it for myself to serve as a reminder of where I started and as a comparison of how much I've improved after many more practice pieces I intend to do. I am proud of myself for taking this class and following through to the end. I have a practice piece that I WANT to keep and proud to say that I did it.

What advice would you give someone starting this project?

Encourage Angela to teach more classes!! Take this class. Follow the instructions. Don't dwell on traditional 'rules' what you've been told or what you think you know about quilting. Stitch it out.

I woke up anxious to get started on the next lesson. I ran out of matching bobbin thread, didn't want to take the time to fill one so I used a taupe bobbin with my silver top thread.
My swirls were not at uniform as they were the previous day. The quilting appears darker in the areas where the needle makes multiple hits (where I stopped the machine just before hitting the stop button) because of the darker bobbin thread. I got lost a few times when quilting out the tiling because I did not take the time to draw out a quilting plan...I hadn't even had my morning coffee yet! I quilted left to right so when I was nearing the right side and had no idea what to do next, I pulled out two feather stencils that I recently purchased. I've done minimal FMQ on the LA prior to taking this class but most of my work has been with pantographs. This is my first time trying stencils. Advice: try anything and everything, but do work out a quilting plan ahead of time.