FMQ Friday - Practice is Never a Waste of Time

This might sound weird for all I talk about the importance of practice and its necessity for becoming good at free motion quilting, but today I finally realized with a jolt like getting smacked in the head this simple truth:

Practice is never a waste of time.

I've been busy working on a project today that I can't show you right this second. It's definitely been a challenge and earlier this week I began getting obsessed with perfection. I found myself asking "what is the PERFECT design to use here? I CAN'T make the wrong choice!"

I honestly don't know a better recipe for killing creativity. Start with an ultimatum and ratchet the stress up a notch with a demand for instant perfection!

As I sorted through my feelings on this project, I began to see how silly I was being. I grabbed a piece of paper and pencil, sat down on the couch and said "Just play. I don't care what happens, just try something."

So I sat and drew and designed. I'd printed out plenty of paper so I could mess up again and again and it not matter. I got out of my way, shut up my mind, and just let loose with any idea that popped into my now empty head.

In the end I did finish my design, but I also became aware that what I had done was far more than just sketching - it was practicing.

I was practicing picking designs. This might not seem like something we would need to practice, but it is! Just like you gain skills in picking fabrics and finding color combinations you really like, we also need to find design combinations that are pleasing too.

This step is so often left out of quilt books (quilt as desired) that even I had fallen into the idea that I should somehow "magically" know which design is perfect in any given space. Guess what?! I don't know! I need to sketch it and audition it and argue with myself and see something else and compare and contrast and finally, in the end, PICK which one I like best.

Because there is absolutely NO PERFECT DESIGN. It doesn't exist! There is this design or that one or #325 or #15 and every single one of them will work in one way or another.

Just as there are no perfect fabric choices, there are no perfect quilting design choices. There is only the task of choosing.

And to choose, you have to give yourself time to practice, to think, to weigh the designs, to sketch, to play, and yes, to make as many mistakes as possible along the way.

I think from now on I'm going to sit down and say to myself "I need to make some mistakes today." just so I don't ever fall in this trap again of seeking perfection where perfection will never, ever exist.

Perfection isn't the point, and practice is never a waste of time. Two more golden rules I hope to never forget!

Now I'm sorry I can't actually show you what I'm doing, but suffice it to say you'll see it in a few months! So what have you been up to this week?

Simple rules for the FMQ Friday link up:

1. Link up with a post that features something about Free Motion Quilting (FMQ).
2. Somewhere in your post, you must link back here, or you can just post the FMQF button in your sidebar.
3. Comment on at least a few of the other FMQF links. Share your love of free motion quilting and make this weekly link up a fun way to connect.
 
Let's go make some mistakes!

Leah

Focus, Motivation, and Honoring Feelings

This month seems to be all about motivation: how to stick with a project through thick and thin and make small progress every day.

It just so happens that I picked up another great audio book on this subject: Focus: Use Different Ways of Seeing the World for Success and Influence. While the book can often wind around in lengthy (a.k.a boring) ways, it's certainly been eye opening to learn about the two dominate forms of motivation: promotion and prevention.

It's no surprise that I've found myself answering a lot of questions that indicate a promotion mindset. I like setting goals, I love being creative and thinking outside the box. I constantly ask "what if" and have the end result of every project in mind.

But that also means I don't always plan for how long things will take and often overestimate my ability to finish quick projects quickly. I tend to be messy and disorganized, even though I work on that issue nearly every day.

Reading this book has been illuminating because I started this month with a clear focus to work steadily on Duchess Reigns. I expected it would take the entire month to finish up the center medallion. Turns out, it only took 12 days.

Seeing this huge section finished and knowing that I'm about 1/2 way through with the quilt definitely gave me a great feeling of accomplishment. I knew this quilt would be difficult and time consuming from the beginning, but seeing this section finished is really exciting.

But...as soon as it was finished I had no desire to work on her further. I clearly have a lot left to do, but at this moment I have absolutely no desire to work on this project.

Digging into this feeling, I find that I just need a break on this project. She's big and overwhelming and I need to honor how I feel about it. I want to work on something lighter and easier for awhile.

Please understand I'm not unhappy with Duchess Reigns by any means. This isn't at all the same feeling I had with the black wholecloth version of Express Your Love. I'm not putting her away to avoid some issue. In actuality I'm going to hang her up in the dining room just so I can live with her on the wall for a bit before stitching out the next section.

Why?

From what I'm learning about motivation, part of feeling the drive to finish something for a promotion-focused person is in imagining it done. In the past I've been so focused on finishing, finishing, finishing and grinding a quilt out that I didn't enjoy the process of actually making the quilt at all. And I ended up hating the end result.

So I think taking this time to hang her up, to live with her on the wall every day when I eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, will give me the time to look at every angle and to fall in love with her yet again.

Taking this break will enable me to stop feeling so pushed to finish her quickly and allow me to savor the experience. I will know it's time to take her off the wall when my pleasure at looking at her will feel diminished by her unfinished state. It's also usually around the time when Josh starts asking "When are you going to actually finish that project?!" He's very patient, but definitely prefers finished quilts hanging on the wall.

So as I roll up this quilt and move her upstairs to hang, what will I be working on in the meantime?

Of course there's never a lack for projects to work on in my sewing room, but for right now I'm feeling an intense urge to piece, to hand stitch, and to make clothes. I want to work with many different techniques and feel pushed and stretched to learn new things. I don't necessarily want to get loads of stuff done, I just want a little vacation, a little break from the intensity of Duchess Reigns.

So here's to honoring your motivation! Whatever you feel driven to do, do it. If you're feeling bogged down with a project, instead of grinding it out, ask the simple question Why? What needs to change in order for this to feel good again?

You might need a break, you might need to change a fabric color, you might just need to find a sunny spot on your deck to relax in with a different project completely. Give yourself a hug and honor your feelings and motivation. After all, you can't do what you don't want to do!

Let's go quilt,

Leah

30. Learn how to Quilt Jagged Scribble, #387

Whew! What a long weekend full of great food, big smiles, and warm hugs. I sure hope everyone had a Happy Mother's Day and felt extra special on our special day!

Today I'm happy to be getting back on the machine and further along with Express Your Love. Let's learn how to fill in those motifs we learned last week with a fun new design called Jagged Scribble:

This is basically Cat Hairball filler, but with straight lines and sharp angles. It's super simple and a great way to create a flatter texture so the motif stands out and shows off that much better.

Now let's learn how to quilt it!

Click here if the video does not appear

So with the body and face filled with beautiful motifs and Jagged Scribble, where should we move next? I think we'll tackle a new design in her hair later this week!

Let's go quilt,

Leah Day

FMQ Friday - Quilting, Sewing, and New Audiobooks, Oh My!

It's been 10 days since I set the goal to work on Duchess Reigns just a bit every day and already I'm seeing huge results:

Through April I had been filled with a negative attitude that it would take WEEKS to finish that feather wing and WEEKS to fill the background and more WEEKS to finish the background.

In reality, it's just taken 10 days to bust through this rut. The center medallion is almost done! Yay!

Mostly this got bogged down because it's quilted so darn dense and it's so extremely excruciatingly BORING to quilt the same identical thing on both sides. I realize now that, while I love symmetry, I hate quilting the same thing over and over again.

So I'm keeping my brain entertained by digging into a new stash of audio books and found a truly terrible tween / witch / paranormal fiction book, Beautiful Creatures, which was just entertaining enough to keep me focused last week. There were times the plot was so ridiculous I had to stop quilting to laugh out loud at just how silly the book was.

I've also been listening to Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking, a book about introverted people and how we tick. Yep, I'm definitely an extremely introverted person, which might or might not be surprising to you. It's part of the reason you'll see me in videos every week, but probably never in person. I just love being home where it's quiet and peaceful.

When I'm not working on Duchess Reigns, I've been working on a muslin for a button down shirt, following the information from two Craftsy classes:

Susan Khalje in The Couture Dress doesn't make a lot of radical changes to her muslin, but she does layout the process very clearly and really sold me on the importance of making a muslin and how all the pieces should be marked and stitched for most fitting clarity.

Lynda Maynard from Sew the Perfect Fit makes RADICAL changes to make three dresses fit three very different body types. I think I gasped out loud the first time I saw her take a pair of scissors to the muslin and cut it wide open to insert more fabric! What I love about this class is it's making me a lot more fearless about changing a pattern to make it fit better.

I've been using information from both classes because both teach garment fitting just a little differently. I like seeing the many different ways fitting works and both teacher's opinions because I know from experience that everyone sews just a bit differently and we have to find the methods that works best for us.

The garment I'm modifying is a cute button down shirt pattern I've had for years (Simplicity 6407). Before I had James the shirt fit great at a size 10 and I made many versions of it in different fabrics. After having my baby, however, certain things just never went back to the way they were before (sound familiar?) and the shirts would always gape weirdly at the buttons in the front.

It's just so nice to be fitting this shirt properly now and be able to make something that looks good. Seeing this top again feels like I'm reuniting with an old friend!

So that's all that's bouncing around my sewing room today. What have you been up to this week?

Simple rules for the FMQ Friday link up:

1. Link up with a post that features something about Free Motion Quilting (FMQ).
2. Somewhere in your post, you must link back here, or you can just post the FMQF button in your sidebar.
3. Comment on at least a few of the other FMQF links. Share your love of free motion quilting and make this weekly link up a fun way to connect.


Let's go quilt,

Leah

New Craftsy Class: Free Motion Fillers Volume 2!

Yay! It's finally time to launch my new class on Craftsy: Free Motion Fillers Volume 2!

I really feel like a chicken that's been sitting on a big egg for the past 3 months and now it's finally hatched! Here's a bit about this brand new class:

Click here to sign up for 50% off!

Just in case you can't watch the video, in Volume 2 you will learn 50 designs (10 brand new, never published before) from 5 new families: Overlapping, Foundational, Edge to Edge, Edge to Center, and Stem Centered. These designs have a much wider range of texture and really unique way of filling through the different areas of your quilts.

Speaking of quilt, for this class we're changing up the project we work on to learn the designs. This time we're stitching out everything into a large tote bag:

This tote bag finishes really big so you can carry loads of crafting supplies, but when you're quilting it on your sewing machine the panels will feel small and easy to move. We're also going to learn these designs on a smaller scale so you get the most bang for your buck - the greatest number of repeats of a design or shape within a small amount of space.

I know well the concern most quilters have with learning on a small scale - that it will make your quilt stiff and uncomfortable to sleep under. But with this class we're learning on a tote bag so this is the perfect project to stitch a little denser and get a lot more practice in a smaller space!

In addition to the 50 designs and tote bag construction, we're also going to learn more about quilting scale, how to pick thread colors, and how to diagnose and fix your thread break issues. I've included a thread break cheat sheet for you to work through whenever you're having thread issues on your machine so you can figure out exactly what is going wrong and get back on track with quilting.

Of course if you ever have issues or questions, you are a click away from connecting with me and getting the help you need! The Craftsy platform is specially designed so you can ask your question right at the spot that confuses you. I check and answer questions every single day so you're sure to get your questions answered within 24 hours.

Now just in case you're brand new to Craftsy, we have an extra special giveaway running for this week!  
Click here to be entered to win a 

free enrollment to this class!

To enter, all you have to do is create a Craftsy account or sign in to your existing account. We will be picking the winner on May 8th, so make sure to sign up today!

While you're there, I would definitely advise signing up for some of the free classes Craftsy offers. Perfect Pizza at Home has radically improved my pizza making ability (much to Josh and James delight!) and Know Your Wool blew my mind with the information about rare breeds of sheep and the wool they create.

If you're looking for an awesome free quilting class, definitely sign up for Amy Gibson's 2012 Block of the Month and learn how to piece 20 beautiful blocks and learn a variety of techniques. These free classes are a great place to get started if you've never taken a class on Craftsy before!

I really hope to see you in this new class Free Motion Fillers Volume 2. Remember, you can always find 50% off links to all of my classes here, so just in case, here's the list of all of them:

 

50% Off Free Motion Fillers Volume 2

50% Off Free Motion Fillers Volume 1

 50% Off Free Motion Quilting a Sampler

Let's go quilt!

Leah Day

29. Fun with Quilting Motifs

Judging from the comments I've received lately, this new version of Express Your Love is pretty popular!

One thing that is making her stand out so beautifully is the extra layer of design I added to her face and body. What is this exactly?

I call this a Motif - it's a drawn design that's added over the quilt fabric and then outlined to define the shape. This type of quilting is marked because you only want THAT design in THAT space and exactly THAT way. It's very specific, often symmetrical, and not something you could stitch free hand (no marking).

How does this differ from all the designs we've learned so far this year? All of the designs we've learned so far are Fillers - free form designs that can be memorized and stitched without marking.

So really the big difference is Motifs are marked, Fillers are not. Motifs are planned ahead and designed to accent your piecing / applique design specifically. Fillers are planned in the sense that you pick a texture you like, but not marked because you stitch them "free hand" and allow your memorization of the pattern to fill the space completely.

I really hope this isn't confusing. I've so far never touched on motifs at all on this blog, though I use them an incredible amount in my quilting design. Just for reference, Duchess Reigns has hundreds of individual motifs from the goddess in the center to the interwoven ring around her, to the lion heads in the corners.

She also has multiple filler designs which are stitched around the motifs to give them definition and add more texture. The two can be used separately or together. Personally I think well planned motifs surrounded by beautiful filler designs is the best combination, but you could easily quilt a quilt all with marked motifs or you can quilt a quilt entirely with fillers.

So understand we're not suddenly changing the rules here. We're just adding a new tool for our toolbox - planning a design you mark on the surface of your quilt.

Now enough gabbing! Let's watch the video to see how this works!

Click Here if the Video Does Not Appear

In this video I'm drawing motifs into the quilt by hand just based on what I want to see in the quilt, but you can also use quilting stencils to create awesome quilting motifs instead. The best class I've ever taken on this technique is Design It, Quilt It taught by Cindy Needham. Click here to get Cindy's class for 25% off the regular price.

Now if you're just getting started and want to follow along with this version of the quilt, you can click here to order a Printed Fabric Panel.

I'm also quilting this version entirely with Isacord Silky White thread, and those little weird nugget thingies on the end of my pins are actually Pinmoors, pin anchors used for basting with straight pin.

So whatcha think? Are motifs opening up a whole new world of quilting designs for you? Share your ideas or questions in the comments below!

Let's go quilt,

Leah

Finding a Place for Everything

It's probably pretty obvious that I like to organize. It's not so much that I like the act of organizing itself, but I absolutely love being able to find what I want, exactly when I want it, and exactly in the place it's always supposed to be.

Just in case you've missed this line of posts, most recently I posted on organizing one specific space in my studio and weighing different drawer options to fill the space most efficiently. I then had so many requests for a sewing room tour I had to shoot one to show the whole space in one go. So click on those links if you're interested in learning about my organization feats so far.

But recently my sewing room and kitchen studio have been cluttered to the point of distraction. I have loads of space, I have invested many times in more storage, I have even built extra odds and ends into the place to make it hold far more than it could originally, but I still find myself tripping over bags of wool and bins of scrap fabric on the floor. WHY ISN'T MY ORGANIZATION WORKING?

Because I truly believe that if my space is properly organized, I WILL NOT have things to trip on. Everything will be put away. When I want to play with something I'll pull it out and play with it and at the end of my sewing time, put it away in its proper place.

So today I've been first trying to figure out WHY my sewing area is getting so messy. WHAT specific items are making it feel cluttered and why are they there and not put away properly?

Very quickly I realized that there's a lot of stuff in my studio with no specific space. Certain tools, materials, and even threads are haphazardly organized across many drawers with no rhyme or reason. I can't find a pair of scissors to save my life, but I have 3 different places I'm keeping needles. This is just weird.

So I have a new mantra: LABEL IT!

This morning I went through every drawer and labeled each one with what it specifically contained. This was both fun and will finally stop me from opening the wrong drawer 4 times before picking the correct one.

This also helped me to start cleaning up. Instead of needles in 3 places, I now keep new, unopened sewing needles in one drawer and the packs I've opened in another. All the rotary cutters have a special place, all the yoyo makers, everything that can be lumped into a set group is now together in one space and much easier to find.

I'm also finding from this experience that many things I've put in drawers should NOT be in drawers. Precut fabric is best put in artbins so I can pull the whole bin out and put it on the table while I'm laying out my fabric and planning a design. While most thread I use commonly works great in drawers, this thread in particular needs to move to an artbin:

Why? This is trash/art thread. It's several years old, some of it good, some bad, but none of it will ever be stitched into a quilt. I'm going to make stuff out of it, eventually, but for now this isn't a project I'm needing to jump into, so this thread needs to get out of a drawer that's in such a primary location and up on a shelf out of the way.

Of course, once I started organizing, I found more places I've not used wisely. Many times I'll finish a quilt and just shove all the scraps from the project in one big bin and shove it on the shelf. This is NOT a good way to organize scraps:

Which got me thinking - what IS a good way to organize scraps? I have yardage organization down as my hanging method is still working great, but scraps have never been my forte. This is just not working with so many colors all jumbled up!

I began pulling out red pieces and putting them all in one bag. As soon as I started pulling out the colors and sorting, I realized I would love a bin of just red scraps, a bin of blue, a bin of purple, and so on. Instead of cutting yardage I will be far more likely to use scraps if I know I have a bin of all one color ready to go.

But here's a question: should I keep prints and solids separate? 

I use printed fabrics sparingly (i.e almost never) because they usually hide a pretty quilting design which never makes me happy. I use batiks that read as solids and solid colored fabrics far more. Should I keep these two different types of fabric separate or lump them all together so long as they are the same color? How do you organize this?

I'm leaning towards separate, but that would require 12 bins or more to organize all the colors of the rainbow by color AND by solid / print. So I need more bins...hmm...

Yes, I think I need to get back into the sewing room and look around and think some more. Unfortunately it's right about now that I'm feeling so overwhelmed by the problem that I usually just throw everything in the corner and walk out of the room. I'm trying hard not to do that today and to work through this step by step.

Here's to finding a place for everything, even when that means reorganizing the entire room!

Let's go quilt,

Leah