Saturday, February 23, 2013

FMQ: its what I do!

So, I wanted to do a whole cloth quilt. But not anything symmetrical or traditional. Just a pretty solid fabric, some thread and me, free-motion quilting. Now whole cloth quilts give you nowhere to hide. But that didn't scare me. Besides, I needed a quilt 24" by 24" to fit in my stairwell, so it was not that large.

And I have always liked illuminated letters. I love the extra special ways the letters were decorated. So I made, an illuminated letter, whole cloth quilt:
Our last name starts with "W" so my choice of letter was easy!


I love the Robin's Egg blue. So soft, yet cherry.
More feather practice
I drew the "W" with a chalk pencil. I also drew the border edge. Then I set out to fill the negative spaces with a variety of stitch patterns. And the white thread popped just enough.





 I like the contrast of the matchstick lines and the feathers. 
And I love the micro-stipple in the background!
I used Kona Snow on the back.
This is 24" by 24". Two layers of batting, thin cotton with wool on top. That gives a good "poof" in the unquilted areas, and the 2 layers give it a bit more structure for hanging.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Great job!

Katie said...

the picture does not do it justice -- it's amazing.

Vicki W said...

Oh you should have been with me at the Britihs Library 2 yeaes ago. Their collection of illu,monated texts is amazing. It would have been noce to have someon with me so poeple would not have thougt I was crazy talking to myself.
When you grow tired of thw W you can send it my way and I'll hang it in my house. It's awesome! Maybe I will male one for myself one day.

Vicki W said...

Sorry for the bad typing, I am on my exercise bike.
:-)

Tammy said...

OH my goodness! I love it Kelly. Your fmq is fabulous! Bravo, very well done.

April's Creations NC said...

I feel privledged that I got to see the FMQ one in person....looked great! Noticed your color theory block on the main page, that turned out spectacular too. I still can't get over that you do that all on your machine and that you don't have a longarm quilter, you are amazing, so glad you share you skills and we can be inspired to try it too!

Jenny K. Lyon said...

Gorgeous!Clever use of FMQ!