Thursday 19 January 2012

What the FMQQAYGQAL?

I have a confession to make. I have a fear of white. I rarely wear white, I don't use white in any decor choices, and I've only made one quilt that had a significant amount of white in it and it was for someone else. I'd like to blame my 'fear of white' on the fact that I have kids and that I secretly refer to them as Sticky, Goopy and Mucky, but my fear of white actually goes way back BC (before children). The truth is that I'm very clumsy and I'm always I spilling things constantly on myself. Combine that with my kids and my less than stellar laundry skills and you have whites that don't stay white for long in this household. So I didn't see the point of spending a lot of time making a white quilt only to have it be stained.

http://www.quokkaquilts.blogspot.com
But then I see all these cool white quilts in the blogosphere and I think that maybe it's time to let go of the fear; to try something new. So for my FMQQAYGQAL (Free Motion Quilting Quilt As You Go Quilt Along) quilt with Quokka Quilts, I decided to go wild and use white for the square borders and white for the thread.

I prepped my blocks this week. I backed my blocks with the same colour as the front centre square and I decided to free motion quilt across the whole block, thinking that it might look neat on the back. The FMQ was a little choppy at first, but I think starting on the white helped hide some of the issues.

Block One: Loopdy loos
Front - Block One
Back - Block One
Block Two: Flowers
Front - Block Two
Back - Block Two
Block Three: Spirals
Front - Block Three
Back - Block Three
Block Four: Sunflower with Spirals -- Love this one. I think I'll do some of this on my Tangled Garden quilt.
Front - Block Four
Back - Block Four
All of them together:
Front
Back
I'm thrilled with the results so far. And the white is still white -- that might be the bigger accomplishment given my history. Can't wait to see what we do next!

Happy Thursday!

16 comments:

  1. Those are awesome M-R! My favorite is the flowers!

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  2. Lovely M-R. Could you even try alternating front and back (ie flipping blocks) to make it double-sided and break up the white? Just a thought. :)

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  3. Arghghggh.... Do you have an alternate plan for joining them together? the method I know means you have to leave those borders unquilted... Oh please please say you do and I haven't been a crap crap quiltalong leader and not mentioned that before.... :( But the quilting looks GORGEOUS!

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  4. Wow - good FMQ! I love it! and the colors with white - striking!

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  5. Great job, M-R. Glad you're conquering your fear of white. I rarely use it too. May have to try using it in a future quilt...or NOT! LOL

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  6. Brave and beautiful!! Your fmqing is fantastic! I would NEVER quilt in white unless it was on white, I'm too much of a scaredy cat!

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  7. Wow, I haven't even heard of this QAL! I'm so glad you decided to use white, I love how clean and fresh it makes quilts look. Beautiful free motion quilting!

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  8. You SHOULD be thrilled! Nice work!!

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  9. These are looking really beautiful. Your fmq is great and I like your colour choices :)

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  10. Your quilting is great. It is all looking super!

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  11. I'm impressed...mind don't look that good! :-) I especially like the 4 petaled flower. Great work!

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  12. Your quilting is great, I look forward to seeing the next lot.

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  13. Fantastic quilting! I love your spirals. ~Jeanne

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  14. I love your blocks! I think I must be the complete opposite to you , and use white in ALL my quilts :D - I'm looking forward to seeing ther rest of your blocks.

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  15. Your quilting is just beautiful.

    FYI: I know that Laura is concerned about how to join your blocks, but the Quilting Edge blog has great tutorials on how to join QAYG blocks that would work for you.

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  16. Beautiful- I love the spirals. You have inspired to try this skill that I have been too timid to do before.

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