FMQ on a Featherweight with 28wt Aurifil

I'm psyched about Free Motion Quilting

on a Featherweight 221!
Have you tried it?
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I used two of my favorite Aurifil
threads --  28wt and 50wt !

I'm sharing details on a
guest post for Aurifil's
Thread Matters 2020 - The Aurifilosopher Series

Stay tuned for my post
to be published on Friday Jan 10th.

I detail my learning adventure, tips, tricks and tools.
***
There's a Giveaway too!!
It's open through end of day
Monday January 13th, 2020

You'll want to click on the Rafflecopter
link at the end of the blog post and follow
the outlined steps to enter !!

***

For my mini whole-cloth stitched on the
Featherweight

I used a red Moda Linen

layered with Quilters Dream Wool.
I did a little pin basting and made
some "improvements" to my Featherweight
(thanks Featherweight Shop)
and I was ready to go!.

I stitched the curled feather and one round of echo quilting with Aurifil 28wt on top

with 50wt in the bobbin.
(with the January Milan yummy Color Builder colors... )

I switched to lovely February Pompeii red Color Builder colors in 50wt top and bobbin for subsequent echo quilting.

You can NEVER have enough color options!!
This is exactly why the new Color Builder subscription program is the best.
Learn more here - and be sure to check with your favorite quilt shop to get started!!

I love, love, love working on the Featherweight

with Aurifil thread and

all those amazing tools from The Featherweight Shop!
(read all about them in the Auribuzz Blog Post).

Stay tuned though as I have a new idea planned for my next project on the Featherweight.

I can't wait for this new learning adventure to begin !!

If you loved what I shared on the Aurifil Thread Matters post be sure to leave a comment there or on my blog to let me know.

Also -- I'd love for you to share the posts with your Featherweight Friends - they'll thank you!

I appreciate the feedback.

All my best,

Karen

***

NOTE:  The FTC requires me to tell you...
I occasionally use affliciate links on by blog and website.
Rest assured I will only share and promote products that I use and LOVE myself.
Many thanks for your support of my very small business.

You're Invited to a 2019 Free Motion Quilting Retreat!

Welcome!

Wendy Sheppard and I are joining forces

 to bring you a fun filled 

Free Motion Quilting Retreat!

This September we're motoring off to 

Quilt Town, USA

also known as

Hamilton, Missouri...

***

The hometown of JC Penny

and the celebrated location of

Missouri Star Quilting Company

and its founder,

everyone's favorite quilting friend,

Jenny Doan.

Karen w/ Jenny -- Missouri Star Academy 2019

My first opportunity to visit MSQC was the Summer of '18.

 
I was honored to share my passion for FMQ and Aurifil thread during the 2nd Annual Missouri Star Academy.

SO MUCH FUN!

Visiting this little town - with 12+ Quilt Shops, all the amazing people, Jenny and her team was like "going home".   It's really a special trip.  I hope you can join us.

Let's Talk RETREAT! 

The 2.5 day event is hosted by

the amazing folks from 

Home-Inn and Hotel-Hamilton

You know these folks, the Redford Family!

***

They're the brilliant minds,

calloused hands, and loving hearts behind

The World's Largest Spool of Thread

established in the Fall of 2018

on the site of the future

Missouri Quilt Museum.

Karen w/ the Redford Family -- Owners of The World's Largest Spool

Wendy and I couldn't be 

more excited about this

2.5 days of Free Motion Fun!   

Our retreat adventure begins with a 

Monday Evening Meet & Greet Dinner, 

Lecture & Dual Trunk Show

Our topic will be:

***

Aurifilosophy

It's all about the thread!

***

We'll be sharing tips, tricks and samples from our trunks that will highlight how YOU can achieve brilliant results with all the luscious weights of Aurifil thread.

You may just find a sweet collection of Aurifil swag at the Meet and Greet too!

We'll round-out our first evening chatting about our adventures and spending a little time getting to know you.

Monday late night -- you're welcome to setup shop and begin stitching your own projects in the beautifully outfitted 7200 square foot event center.

2019 Missouri Star Academy FMQ Workshop w/ Karen Miller at the Hotel Hamilton Event Center

Or -- just kick back and relax in the Event Center lounge.

Image courtesy Hotel Hamilton Event Center

Or -- get comfy in the beautifully adorned retreat style rooms to
rest up for the next 2 days of fun!

See More Hotel Hamilton Images Here

Tuesday will bring a FULL DAY of

Free Motion Quilting 

Basics

Wendy and I share the stage and get you stitching on a  home machine with your own 6' of dedicated table space. 

Bring your own machine or reserve an Event Center machine for $25.00.

The Eversewn Sparrow 20 rental comes complete with a free motion foot and a few of your favorite notions -- no need to lug your own.

The rental fee covers 2.5 days of use.

Sparrow 20 Rental - Read More 

Our goal for Day 1 --  help you become familiar with domestic machine quilting basics.  

We'll talk tension, needles, batting, thread and other tips and tricks that will aid in a successful home machine quilting experience. 

  

We'll get the basics out of the way early-on so we can jump into stitching a wide variety of fun motif in the afternoon.

Lunch will be served mid-day Tuesday (and Wednesday) in the Event Center.

We'll take a break, relax and enjoy a simple meal.

We'll be back to stitching in the afternoon and end the day around 4:00pm so you'll be free to wander into town, visit Missouri Star Quilt Co, do some shopping, sightseeing, or whatever!

You'll be on your own for dinner Tuesday but don't fear -- there are a few local choices to grab a great meal. 

You're welcome to sit and stitch the evenings away in the Event Center - a few short steps from your cozy room.  

There's no stitching curfew - no rules.

Wednesday will bring a FULL DAY of

Free Motion Quilting

Basics & Beyond 

with a bit about Feathers!

Wendy and I can't let the time get away without sharing a few more advanced designs and a bit about feathers.  

We both LOVE stitching feathers so we'll share a few feather motif, some continuous curve stitching and maybe a bit of McTavishing too! 

Retreat Summary:

$325 - Now that's a bargain in any state! 

A great thing about the 

timing of the Retreat is...  

You're already in town for the start of the Missouri Star Quilt Co Birthday Bash!!    

If you've not experienced Birthday Bash now is your chance.

MSQC will be hosting Dinner with the Doan's on Wednesday night (ticket required) 

and the Hotel-Hamilton (Dakota) is offering additional nights of Lodging for an exceptional price! 

To see all the Retreat details be sure to jump on over to the ticketing site:

Here's the link:

2019 Free Motion Quilting Retreat 

We're excited to have you join us for our first ever FMQ Retreat!

Enrollments are open now

and availability is limited.

Jump on over, learn more and please let us know if you have any questions.

Happy Stitching..

Karen & Wendy

2019 Free Motion QAL: Part 7 - Simple is Good!

Greetings all - Welcome to Part 7 of the
2019 Free Motion Quilt Along
featuring Lewe the Ewe
fabric panel by World of Susybee..

My dear friend and mentor Wendy Sheppard of Ivory Spring and I have teamed up to bring you this fun stitching event!

We have amazing sponsors including World of Susybee, Aurifil, Quilters Dream Batting, Hobbs Batting and Creekside Fabrics Quilts and Yarns.

Many thanks to our sponsors!!

Do checkout our Giveaway Post
here ==> QAL Giveaway

If you're just tuning into the QAL it's not too late to join in the fun...

Catch up with these Lessons: 

Jan 7:  Announcement Post  ✅

Jan 21:  Setup, Planning, Basting ✅

Jan 28:  Stabilization Quilting or Catch Up ✅

Feb 4:  Inside Center Panel ✅

Feb 11: Progress Pics ✅

Feb 25:  Top and Bottom Rectangles ✅

I'll share a few highlights:

This is how I stitched my center panel.
Learn more here>  Inside Center Panel

Last week we stitched those beautiful top and bottom rectangles.

Learn more
here > Top and Bottom Rectangles

Be sure to watch the YouTube video too!!
Fun with feathers!

Today we'll cover:

March 4:  Top and Bottom Squares

Over the years I've stitched a few Lewe blocks and this go-round I decided
 ...Simple is Better.

There really is no right or wrong -- and the key for our quilt along is to try different things.  So, although I quilted all my blocks similarly -- feel free to try new things in yours.

You can see a variety of stitching ideas for Lewe panels clicking this hashtag #longlivelewe from most any social media platform.    You can also try #worldofsusybee 

Here's a post I shared on Instagram from 2016 -- when we were in the middle of our 2016 Free Motion Quilt Along. 

Be sure to use Instagram and Facebook to your advantage.  Searching by hashtag is fast and easy and it doesn't limit results to the people you follow.

So... for the corner squares on this years panel I loaded thread that matched the background fabric and did some simple pebbles (Page 50), echo quilting and outlining (Page 30).

A few tips...

1. I generally start by outlining the subjects.

Using a heavy weight thread (28 or 12) helps the subjects POP off the fabric -- but note -- those threads also build-up quickly if you're doing a lot of dense quilting and/or backtracking.
In this case you may hear a few groans from your machine and have a little trouble on your hands.

For ease and simplicity -- I decided to go with a 40wt Aurifil color #2024.

If you're unsure what color of Aurifil to use -- check out my last post about weight and color options.

When stitching panels...

2.  Don't worry about stitching on the line -- stitch just inside or just outside the line.  It's so much easier to NOT have to stress over staying on the line.

 

I prefer to outline the head and ears to give them definition.

 If you like, stitch on his pretty lambs wool swirls too! 
I chose to NOT Stitch the swirls this time because I didn't want to flatten them.

3.  I love to use pebbles (Page 50) and echo quilting (Page 30) to make the bee look like he is flying.
(Meandering loops Page 31 work too!)

In each corner square I made a buzz trail with pebbles and then echoed the bee a few times to make him look like he's moving.

There are so many different ways to quilt these panels -- that is what makes it fun!

Although I used a thread color that matches the background fabric, it would also look beautiful quilted with one of Wendy's subtle colors -- or in #2600 Dove -- another favorite !

In the image below NOTICE how I drew the BUZZ trail of the bee with a purple pen before I started stitching 

This allowed me to start stitching in the lower right corner, going around the ewe and the flowers and working my way to the top left of the panel.

At the top left of the added the pebbles - the purple dots gave me a target area to quilt the pebble trail. From the pebbles on the left I worked to the right to finish stitching the bee and the echoes on the bee.

Here are the remaining corner squares.
You can see I followed the same format for each block.

1. Outline the Ewe body, head, ears
2. Outline the flowers
3. Outline the bee and add a pebble trail.
Optionally -- you can echo quilt to the outside edge of the block
AND you can quit those beautiful wooly swirls on the ewe if you so choose.

There are many choices -- do what looks good to your eye and know that with each area we quilt our skills improve.

Don't be afraid to backtrack.

Stitching in a continuous line without stops and starts is kinda freeing!

Challenge yourself to find a stitching path that will allow you to stitch end to end without cutting your threads.    This is where the backtracking or "sneaking around" on a previously stitched line comes in handy.

Stitching with thread that matches the background fabric allows you to quilt just outside of the line.   Do you see how, around the face, stitching off the black area allows it to POP a bit.

When you're learning, don't worry so about your stitch lengths.   You can see that mine vary -- but as long as the stitch is solid I just go with it.    

I tend to lean toward stitch lengths that are shorter (more stitches per inch aka SPI) so that the curves can be rounded and not choppy.  

That's it for this week... 

Yay - We tackled one more section of the panel!!

I can't wait to see what Wendy quilted.

You can jump over to Wendy's Blog <== here.

If you have any questions, please leave them below -- I'll respond as soon as I can.

Future Posts...

March 11:  Left and Right Panels

March 18: Narrow Sashing

March 25:  Outside Border

April 1:  Binding, Labeling, Hanging if applicable

Happy Stitching!

Karen

*************

Learn more about how to use various thread weights in these Facebook Live Sessions

hosted by Aurifil at International Quilt Market: 

Redbird Quilt Co Mini Trunk Show

Redbird Quilt Co Fast Feather Demonstration

***

Follow me on social media:

Redbird Quilt Co. on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube

Join my FMQ Frenzy Community Group on Facebook.

See my other Moda Bake Shop Recipes

Click here to see my upcoming events.

*

***  Guilds, Groups and Shops ***

I'm booking Lectures, Trunk Shows and Workshops
for 2020 and beyond!

If your Shop, Group or Guild is looking for programs or workshops I would love to hear from you.

Free Motion Quilting on Home Machines
Basics ~ A Quilters Doodles ~ McTavishing
A Full Day of Feathers
*
Aurifilosophy
*
Wool & Needle turn Applique
Technique or Project Oriented Workshops available.

Click here to see my upcoming events.
*

Send email inquiries to karen at redbirdquiltco dot com

or redbirdquiltco at gmail dot com

Note:  The FTC requires that I tell you.... I occasionally use affiliate links on my blog and website.  I may be compensated for purchases made using the links.  Rest assured I will only share sales and promotions for products I know and love myself.  Many thanks for your support of my very small business.

2019 Free Motion QAL: Show and Tell - Some Progress Pics

Happy President's Day All!

On our "off" week I thought it would be
fun to share a few
Work In Progress pictures
received via Email, Facebook and Instagram

I get all excited when I receive progress pictures.

Honestly !

It makes my day...

I love that each person makes the project their own.

using any machine they have available...

with or without a stitch regulator

Some folks are just getting started...

and some folks had a baby shower deadline so they are DONE !!

(I'll show you more of this one later ;) 

Some folks are working on a longarm...

 Others are on home machines.

But what is really awesome is that you're all stitching along.

I sit and stare at every image with a BIG SMILE on my face.
*
It's a great learning experience for everyone.
And sharing what you've done so far not only helps YOU
It helps others too...
*
Many thanks to those that have sent me images or tagged me or Wendy on Instagram or Facebook.
💓💓💓
including...
Bert, Lori, Kathleen, Deb, Mary, Mary Jean

If I missed an image someone sent -- please forgive me.

***
Before you get back to stitching be sure to jump over to Wendy's post here.

For those of you that are new to the Quilt Along here are the details...

To date Wendy and I have shared the following Quilt Along (QAL) posts...

Jan 7:  Announcement Post  ✅

   Jan 21:  Setup, Planning, Basting  ✅

Jan 28:  Stabilization Quilting or Catch Up ✅

Feb 4:  Inside Center Panel  ✅

Feb 11:  Check-in and Tips  ✅


Also -- I've created a YouTube Playlist referencing all the videos I've shared.

If you're just tuning in, there's ample time to catch up.

We'll share our next lesson on the 25th of February.

Grab your fabric, book, and thread and get ready to have some fun!!
Here's the remaining schedule:

Feb 25:  Top and Bottom Rectangles

March 4:  Top and Bottom Squares

March 11:  Left and Right Panels

March 18: Narrow Sashing

March 25:  Outside Border

April 1:  Binding, Labeling, Hanging if applicable

.... I love to hear from you!

 -- AND -- 

see where you are in the process.

If you're on social media --  add this hashtag to any images you share

#2019fmqal   or  #2019fmqalong 

I'll be searching them.

You can always email me too

redbirdquiltco@gmail.com

or 

leave comment or send me a message on Facebook

Use my @redbirdquiltco page.

or

tag me on Instagram

that is @redbirdquiltco too !!

You can also leave a comment on the blog (below) or on any YouTube video.

I look forward to our upcoming adventures.

happy stitching!

Karen