FMQ Friday – Distortion Delimmas

LeahDay

Leah Day has been teaching online since 2009. She's the creator of the Free Motion Quilting Project, a blog filled with thousands of quilting tutorial videos. Leah has written several books including 365 Free Motion Quilting Designs, Explore Walking Foot Quilting with Leah Day, and Mally the Maker and the Queen in the Quilt.

10 Responses

  1. Laura T says:

    Thanks for the timely post as this is what I'm facing right now. I was in a hurry to get to quilting and added some other elements (applique). So now I'm now unpicking and will tackle this a bit better after reading your post. I think I will use the soluble thread to baste the quilt.
    LauraT

  2. Anonymous says:

    Such great advice/pointers. Just raising the awareness level will go a long way to helping minimize a major skewed outcome. Wetting/blocking does so much to overcome seemingly "impossible" outcomes. Having said all that, I have come to the conclusion that there is no achievable 'perfection' but very real 'satisfaction' in the creation of this quilted art and I am so okay with that and loving it!!! Thanks for all your inspiration/dedication to us all in your sharing of experience and talent. Hugs, Doreen

  3. Kelly Vetch says:

    These were really good points this week. I know I had the same question. Would you normally do the painting this soon in a quilt as well? I worry about brushing the paint too often and scratched it or ruining it's luster.

  4. Distortion is spelled wrong in the title. Oops.

  5. Leah Day says:

    Shawn – You have just pointed out Bloggers fatal flaw – no spell check in the title area! NOOO! Lol. Now you know the truth: without auto-spell check I would be barely legible!

  6. Leah Day says:

    Kelly – Great question! No, I usually don't paint a quilt until later in the process, but I'm glad I tried it now. It hasn't damaged the painted area a bit to be banged around the sewing room, and it's still looking very nice.

    As for other paints, we'll have to wait and see. I'd say you'd be pretty safe to paint at any stage with Jacquard Lumiere.

  7. Leah, thanks so much for all you share with us. I have never done a whole cloth quilt before. I am following along with your "express Your Love" but I am not using your design. Ive created my own sketch, sewn thru the pattern to create a stencil, pounced it and stitched the center design with water soluble thread. However, not thinking ahead enough as we all get excited in the initial stages. I used regular thread in the bobbin as I had thought once the soluble thread was gone the bobbin thread would just be pulled out. Once I was done I realized if I freemotioned on top the bobbin thread would be trapped and it will be a picking mess to get out.
    Since the center design is anchored, can I stitch the background areas first with out getting a distorted, stretched center? I'm not liking the idea I should redo the whole thing. But if I have to, it's a learning experience.
    Thanks, Suzanne, Dutchess County NY

  8. Pamelyn B says:

    I had hoped to get my link in but it was closed after 1 day! I started to use my longarm and my first full FMQ project using it is done! Here's a link:

    http://pamelynspostings.blogspot.com/2013/02/fmq-practice-longarm-machine.html

    Thanks for all the knowledge you share. I've learned so much from your videos and am looking forward to implementing patterns on the longarm as well as on the regular sewing machine. All the best to you and your family!
    Pamelyn from pamelynspostings.blogspot.com

  9. Anonymous says:

    Hi Leah,
    Checking in again on the latest "rays" fillers. I'm finding my stitches very tiny and uneven due to the small space we're quilting inside. I know it won't be perfect, but my stitches are really teeny. I'm having to go super slow and still it doesn't look so good – hope it gets better with practice (on the quilt itself). By the way – I found stitching on the painted blue area a breeze!!!!

  10. Leah Day says:

    Hi Suzanne – It sounds like you need to either consciously let your foot off the gas or speed up the movement of your hands. Yes, this will get easier the more you do it, but try to focus on either one of these areas and see if it improves your stitch length and quality.

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