Welcome to the 2012 Free Motion Quilting Challenge

Welcome to the 2012 Free Motion Quilting Challenge.


I want to introduce you to Frances Moore, our first FMQ Expert in the 2011 FMQ Challenge.  You could essentially think of Frances as "Miss January".  Frances loves teaching FMQ designs and how to plan FMQ for various quilt designs & sizes, to quilters of all skill levels. She also teaches a variety of quilt classes, not just FMQ.

Frances has been teaching quilting for 8+ years.  I met her during my FMQ research, in 2011, when I attended a FMQ Workshop with Two Wacky Woman.  I found Frances to be an excellent teacher, a wonderful person, and be blessed with a nice senses of humor too!  I enjoyed her class and was delighted when she agreed to be one of the 12 FMQ experts for this challenge.  What sets her apart from other FMQ teachers is her "No frame, stitch regulator, marking or gloves" approach. 

While I want to encourage everyone to take as many FMQ classes as they can possibly take, I also want to heighten awareness that Frances is willing to travel to teach a variety of workshops, and all levels of free-motion quilting.  But, for those living in Southern California, or willing to visit sunny Southern California, Frances will be teaching at an upcoming FMQ Quilt Retreat, by Two Wacky Woman, March 23-25 in Mission Viejo, CA.

If you are interested in having Frances give a presentation/workshop at your quilt guild, please have your guild program coordinator contact Frances directly.  Likewise, if you want her to teach at  your local quilt shop, talk with the store owner to recommend they contact Frances.  

Frances Moore
email:  frantasticquilts@sbcglobal.net
blog: http://frantastic-stitchwitchery.blogspot.com/

During the 2012 FMQ Challenge, each month a tutorial will be released.  Some experts may provide a tutorial with text & photos, whereas some may provide theirs via video.  Frances created a special video tutorial for us that I think is excellent!  I hope you enjoy it too!

January FMQ Tutorial



If you have a MAC and/or problems viewing this video please try watching it directly from youtube via this link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=A9GiSm7iHDI.  You may also want to try different Mac browsers (e.g. Mac Firefox vs Mac ?).  If you still have problems viewing the HD FMQ tutorial, please email me and I'll see what I can do to help you.

To clarify, the January challenge will be to learn and/or improve your FMQ skills by practicing the design that Frances has shared in her video tutorial.  Pull out your practice quilt sandwiches have fun.  For those that are new to FMQ, remember to drop your feeddogs.  And, if you have problems with the leaf motif, think of creating heart shapes.  The goal is  to not finish this tutorial in one day, but to practice until you feel you have this FMQ design embedded in your muscle memory and can do it on your quilts.  At that point, if you are doing the optional FMQ Sampler Quilt, pick an 8x8" block in the lst row and sew out this design in that block.  Before the end of the month, besure to photograph your favorite stitch outs of this design and follow the instructions to this months challenge, via the linky below.

For those using Facebook, you may also want to post photos in the group "2012 Free Motion Quilting Challenge" to share with others.  To clarify, these are not official entries, but this forum is a great way to network with others participating in this challenge.  We also encourage members of this group to help each other when questions are asked.  As this isn't a class, our FMQ experts provide a tutorial, we don't want to impose on our experts to be available to answer all of our questions, so lets try to help each other where we can.

Frances has generously offered to try to answer questions for those participating in this January FMQ challenge.  So, this month, you also have the option of emailing her your questions and if you follow her blog, you may see your question get addressed in one of her blog posts. Plus, following her blog is a great way to learn more about Frances and get inspired by her beautiful quilting.

Our sponsor for the challenge this month is Aurifil.  One lucky winner will receive a sampler pack of 5 Aurifil threads and another lucky winner will receive a Silk Stars Thread kit, with 12 spools of 40 wt threads.








 

To be eligible to win a monthly prize, simply complete the current months' tutorial in the month it is released and get  your entry submitted via the linky tool, at the bottom of this page, no later than January 31st.  But do remember this challenge is more about learning and improving your FMQ skills, so don't rush thru the exercise just to enter.  Take time to practice and embed this design to your muscle memory, before you enter.   To clarify, DO NOT just add a link to your blog, but to your post that shows that you have completed this tutorial.  You get one link, so keep practicing until you feel you are finished with this tutorial.

For bloggers, please post your entry on your blog.  To clarify, you can include as many photos of this tutorial exercise in your post, but you can only add one link to the linky tool below.  You may also want to include insights in your post about your past FMQ experience and thoughts about this tutorial.  Totally, optional, but you may also want to let everyone know that you have taken the Pledge and you did this exercise to enter the the challenge this month, where randomly selected winners will win a prize.  You may inspire others to want to join this challenge too!   

 

For non-Bloggers:
1) You will need to have a Flickr account (www.flickr.com). 
2) Upload  "one" photo to Flickr, batch organize, send to groups, select "2012 FMQ Challenge - January".  While Flickr, limits the amount of text you can share in your description, feel free to share your perspective on this exercise and/or your past FMQ experience, if you wish.
3) After photo has successfully been loaded to the "2012 FMQ Challenge - January" group, click on your photo in that group and copy the URL link to your particular photo entry. Add that link to the linky tool above, to officially enter this show.

Update:  Winners of the January challenge were announced on a separate post dated January 12th.

Should anyone wonder why they an X next to their link, it appears to be a new feature of this linky tool and no one else sees it. To clarify, the red X only appears on links that you personally add to this linky tool.





note:
To officially be entered in the 2012 FMQ Challenge please take time to fill out the "Pledge Form" .  Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out an easy way to get the email addresses collected in the Pledge Form to automatically load to my MailChimp mailing list, as originally planned.  While I apologies, I do ask, if you want to receive email reminders when new FMQ tutorials are released each month, please also sign up via the special mailing list for this activity.

Those on Facebook, may also want to join the "2012 Free Motion Quilting" group that was created to allow networking with those participating in this challenge.