#100daysofFMQ

Oh dear. More than a month has passed without a blog post, thanks in part to the busy time of year and also because I am both wrapping up my current job and getting ready for my next one coming this September. I am so excited to be opening a new high school!

One of my work colleagues/friends encouraged me to join the #100daychallenge. I did some research and decided to jump right in with #100daysofFMQ. I had that Angela Walters Craftsy class that was just sitting there and I really do need to expand my free motion quilting repertoire. I made a stack of quilt sandwiches and tried each day to experiment with a different design.

I didn't make it all 100 days. Life got in the way. But I think I made it 47 days which is pretty darn great! Check me out on Instagram if you want to see all the successes and failures @lynnfilliter.

Below are some hits and misses from the challenge! (Have mercy on me, especially since I purposely used dark thread on light fabric to highlight the quilting!)

Loops.

Circle are hard!

I liked the varied size of circles (thanks Angela Walters!)

Not so much.

Free hand free motion stars on an actual quilt. Um. Cute?

More Angela Walters. This is a variation on Ribbon Candy.

Feathers are harder than circles! Yikes!

This was my ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE from all the ones I tried. I followed a free tutorial AND IT TOTALLY WORKED.

Angela again.

More Angela.

I'm not sure what I think of this one.

Another free tutorial. I count this one as a success!

Kind of cool, right?

Not so much.

I think my quilting skills have improved a bit and if nothing else I feel braver to tackle different quilting on my next project. The problem is that straight line quilting and wandering meander stipple FMQ is just so darn easy to resort to when it is what you know best!

Which of my above experiments do you like?

Monkey Business: A Finished Quilt

A work friend is expecting twins and so I put together some simple patchwork quilts for her. The first is for the little boy twin (she is having one of each sex, due in November) and I was working off a text from the mommy-to-be who said she was thinking brown and blue.

Here is Monkey Business:

The fabrics are all from my stash. I used the idea of brown and blue to choose that Ann Kelle monkey print and went from there.

I love how these fabrics play together. Brown, blue, green and teal is not what I would call a typical palette for a baby boy quilt but I think that makes these modern fabrics even more fun.

I used my favourite Denyse Schmidt print, eyelet in green, as well as some Riley Blake chevrons, quatrefoil, pearl bracelets, a solid I had some scraps of (not sure which one...don't tell Jenn at A Quarter Inch from the Edge!) and some fun stripes and such from in my scrap bin. This was also my first addition of Cotton + Steel prints (that brown with the white diagonal dots).

The back is all one print which I don't mind as much on a smaller baby quilt like this where there is no need to piece anything.

The backing is Tim and Beck's elephant print. I got this on clearance in...Chicago? No, maybe Cleveland?

I did a free motion stipple all over the quilt because it is very easy and fast. I am taking an Angela Walters FMQ class on Craftsy to expand my skill set, though, so I'll let you know how that goes.

Here it is in the sunshine, looking all ready to be gifted to the expectant mom. Look for the post on the baby girl's quilt, Mint Julep, coming early next week. (I just need to convince my hubby that another quilt photo shoot isn't all that bad).

Lynn

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday with Crazy Mom Quilts.