FMQ Play Time on Plus Playtime

I had the wild idea to FMQ a different pattern in each plus symbol in our second Plus Playtime.  Check out the details on our first Plus Playtime quilt as well as info on the pattern from Sandra at mmm Quilts.  It was a seriously wild idea because I don’t have that many patterns in my personal FMQ arsenal.  So I thought I would share a few photos of the ones I’ve come up with so far, and have executed after a fashion.

FMQ Loop-de-loo

This is a fun pattern to stitch!  There’s no right or wrong direction – you just kind of go where the fabric sends you kitten.  I made the small little ‘e’ and then surrounded it with the bigger ‘l’ loop.  This picture also shows a good shot of the next really easy straight stitch.

FMQ Straight (ish) Stitch

Please refer to the picture above, because they look pretty darn good there.  As opposed to this picture where you can see a really, really good wobble!

The fabric is a solid black although it look dark gray in the photo.  I found this to be very easy and just used the edge of the free-motion presser foot as a guide.  At the end of each row I stitched in the ditch, or near it in some cases, over for the next row.  Upon reflection after the first section was done I wondered why I stitched so closely.  That ship has sailed!

FMQ Swirls

Swirls were stitched in two different sizes.  The main light gray has the larger sized swirls, while one of the small pluses has much smaller, tighter swirls.

I kind of wished I had used a lighter thread on the light gray area, but went with black because the backing fabric is also black.  At this point it is what it is because I’m not ripping it out!

FMQ Radiating Loops

My friend Vicki from Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting recently pointed me in the direction of Leah Day and her sharp stippling.  At the end of Leah’s video she shared another pattern, and this is my interpretation of that.  I’m calling it radiating loops, where I stitched a teardrop-shaped loop and then just echoed around it a few times.

I’ve found that I really cannot see well when stitching on black with black thread so that may explain some of the misshaped loops.  That’s my excuse and I’m stitching with it!

FMQ Stippling

Stippling is my new favorite stitch since the David Taylor Michigan class.   This is my attempt on a small scale stippling and I am pretty happy with it.

Once the whole quilt is quilted and washed, my hope is that some of these inconsistencies will totally disappear.  It’s not like I will be studying it, and neither will Luke.  The quilty squishiness is already present, and I know that will only improve as I go along.  My next couple of pluses are going to include stiff stippling, more small scale stippling and loop-de-loos.  It is possible there might even be a small scale floppy feathers plus sign.  We’ll see!  If you have any other easy suggestions, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

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