Thursday, October 11, 2012

2012 Free Motion Quilting Challenge - Bonus Tutorial

One of the bonus tutorials at the 2012 Quilt Challenge is by Susan Brubaker Knapp "Free-motion Quilting Challenge: Finding fabulous motifs in your environment". I have often found inspiration for my quilts in the world around me but I have never looked for ways to quilt my quilts so this was new and fun!

After taking a closeup photo with a digital camera, I printed the picture, traced an outline onto tracing paper and transferred that to fabric. Then I free motion quilted those lines. I didn't use any filler motifs like tiny pebbles or stippling this time but I could have.


I recently had my private retreat and I was thinking about this challenge. So I grabbed my camera and looked around the motel room. The very first thing I noticed was a photo on the wall including this:


Using the macro setting, I took the following photo.
I printed this out as a 5X7 picture and transferred it to the fabric. This is the resulting quilted piece.

This is an enlargement of the edge of a mirror.
And this is the resulting quilted piece.


I really enjoyed this exercise and am anxious to try some other designs - the bark on various trees, different leaves, grasses, the upholstery design on a chair,... The list is endless!

6 comments:

  1. What a great exercise to be more observant of our surroundings. Although I am a detailed oriented person, I tend to miss a lot of my surroundings(which could lead to great quilting ideas). I have always been in my own little world, to the point, my Dad sill says to this day...."earth to Dan". I guess I'm just a dreamer....Keep at it!

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  2. Whoops! I take it back. Couldn't find a follow button!

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  3. How interesting to take everyday things around you and use them to create quilting patterns. Like you, I'm used to seeing quilts in the everyday things, but I've never thought to look for quilting patterns. I'll look at things in a new way now.

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  4. Great idea to look for quilting patterns in the things around us.

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  5. Great post....and you are so right! These patterns/potential patterns are everywhere if we just look!!!

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