Learning a new skill

It has been a very busy weekend again here catching up with the household chores, getting out into the garden to get rid of the weeds and meeting up with a friend I haven't seen for years and years!!  It has been fun but now I am really, really tired and my poor eyes just would not let me do any hand stitching, they had had enough and I only managed a few stitches on my 'Ruby Cottage' embroidery.  It is a shame because I really love this cute little pattern designed by Gail Pan and I really wanted to get it finished and make up my cushion but, it was not to be!

Instead I decided to try out a new skill.  For years on and off I have been trying to teach myself how to free motion quilt.  It is not something which comes very naturally to me.  Of course, I have some books on the subject and, I know that the key is practice!!  This weekend I signed up for a Craftsy online FMQ class with Elizabeth Dackson and I started watching it. However, I decided that  before I try to tackle the lessons in the class, I would do some practising of my own.  I know that it is important to work out your own rhythmn so that you get nice even and smooth stitches. So I made myself a practice 'quilt sandwich' set up my machine and had a go at stitching.  

I thought I would set up a page here on my blog and post photographs of my practice pieces each week so that I can measure my progress.  I am determined this time to get to grips with FMQ!! I know from my experiences with hand quilting that one day, after much practice, something will just 'click' into place and all will become much easier. I am hoping to sew one practice piece each day until I get there! As well as following my online Craftsy class.

You can see from my first piece that there is a long way to go before I can call myself a free motion quilter!!  There is hope though as by the end of stitching this piece I could already see that my stitches were getting smaller and smoother.  It will be interesting to see how the stitches improve over time (at least I hope they'll improve!)

Thank you for visiting and have a lovely day!