FMQ Challenge Recap - February 2012

First, I want to recognize and formally thank Diane Gaudynski, our February FMQ expert for her wonderful tutorial, as well as all the insights she shared on her blog, to provide supplemental information and inspiration. Of course, I always enjoy her blog, but it was greatly appreciated to have her so active in support of her tutorial this month.

Diane showed us how to create beautiful feathers, outlined in a lovely echo stitch.

To help express appreciation to Diane, I took the liberty to share a few comments and observations that I've seen this month, from the participants in this challenge:

Quilters of all levels are participating in this challenge.  For many they are quite new to FMQ and this was the first time to stitch feathers for many, whereas others may have experience with feathers, but learned an new feather style.  Everyone that practiced created beautiful feathers.

Many turned their practice sandwiches and turned them into various quilted projects.

While this tutorial was certainly challenging to many, it was fun to see the results and hear feedback on how happy quilters were with what they were learning, even though many initally thought it might be impossible for them to quilt a feather. 

On behalf of all the participants, I want to extend a special thank you to Diane for providing us such a wonderful tutorial and inspiring us to learn and improve our free-motion quilting skills. 

THANK YOU DIANE!

There are over 2,000 quilters that have taken the Pledge to complete all 12 tutorials in 2012, which is a requirement to win a Grand Prize. And, there are many more quilters that are participating, but have acknowledged their schedule won't allow them to complete all 12 tutorials. At the time of writing this post, there are 200+ quilters that complete the January tutorial and took time to enter it in the monthly challenge, to win a Monthly prize.  To clarify, everyone that completes the tutorial and enters via the link is automatically entered to win a monthly prize.  The winner will randomly be selected and announced on the main page for this challenge, early March.

The objective of the 2012 Free Motion Quilting Challenge is to encourage quilters to learn and improve their FMQ skills, as well as gain more awareness to various FMQ Experts, opportunities to learn, tools that are helpful for those doing FMQ, all on a home sewing machine. While the focus is on learning, and SewCalGal does not want the focus to become all about winning prizes, I'm also delighted that many generous sponsors have donated wonderful Grand Prizes and Monthly prizes, that will be awarded to participants randomly. It doesn't matter how good you are at FMQ, what matters is you take time to learn and improve.

Details on how to win a monthly prize will always be shared in the same post for the monthly tutorial. Details on how to win a Grand Prize will be shared later this year, but hte basic rule will be that you will need to complete all 12 FMQ tutorials "anytime" in 2012 to be eligible to win a Grand Prize.

SewCalGal is proud to recognize our
GRAND PRIZE SPONSORS
for this challenge.
IF you are interested in being a Grand Prize sponsor, please email SewCalGal for more info.

Sponsor(s)	Prize(s)
The Fat Quarter Shop	Six prizes for Grand Prize Winners: 1 - $250 GC 1 - $150 GC 1 - $100 GC 3 - $50 GCs
	One lucky winner will receive a $200 gift certificate to The Stencil Company where they can pick out their favorite continuous line stencil designs that are perfect for quilting
Dream World	One lucky winner will receive a Pieceful Holiday Quilting Package, which includes: a Steady portable tables, a Travel/Storage Bag, Sew Straight Guide, Spinner Tray and Polish Kit estimated value: $149.99
The Electric Quilt Company	One lucky winner will receive a copy of EQ7 Retail price: $189.95
June Tailor	A bundle of June Tailor products, perfect for free motion quilting, with an estimated value over $100
	A bundle of books, perfect for those interested in free motion quilting, with an estimated value over $100

SewCalGal is proud to recognize our
MONTHLY PRIZE SPONSORS
for this challenge.

Sponsor(s)	Prize(s)
Aurifil -	sampler pack of 5 threads (12) Silk Stars Thread kit, with 12 spools of 40 wt threads:
SewSlip	SewSlip has donated 12 SewSlips!
Sewline:	Trio Three Color Fabric Marking Pencils with an extra refill package.
Quilters Touch	Quilters Touch has donated 12 bundles, each with a value of $27.95: pair of Machingers quilting gloves value $8 each Sew Precise Sew Fast Machine Binding DVD (retail $19.95),
Electric Quilt	winners' choice of Quiltmaker Quilting Designs software from Volume 1-7

The Prize Bundle for this Monthly Challenge includes:

• a sampler pack of 5 Aurifil threads, donated by Aurifil.
• a SewSlip, donated by SewSlip

Quilters Touch has donated a pair of  Machingers quilting gloves value $8 each

And, Quilters Touch donated a Sew Precise Sew Fast Machine Binding DVD (retail $19.95),



Sewline has donated a Trio Three Color Fabric Marking Pencils, with an extra refill package.

There is still time to enter to win a prize, simply visit the February tutorial for more information. But all entries for this monthly challenge need to be submitted in February, so this is the last day you can enter to win a monthly prize. This post will be updated later this week, to announce the February winner. And, an email will also be sent to the winner.

The February tuturial will be released on February lst. An email announcement, with additional information, will also be sent to those that signed up for optional emails for this event. If you didn't sign up for such emails and are interested, click here to sign up.


Don't forget that Diane's February tutorial will be available for a limited time.  SewCalGal encourages everyone to continue to practice with this excellent tutorial, to be able to apply it to your quilting projects.    And, don't forget to follow Diane's blog, as she always shares great tips & inspiration.  I also highly recommend Diane's two books, published by AQS. 

I also want to share that "Guide to Machine Quilting" will soon be out of print, plus the price on Amazon is absolutely amazing.  This is a must have book for anyone that wants to master a variety of spectacular FMQ designs.  "Quilt Savvy" is another excellent book for those serious about learning FMQ and Amazon has an amazing price. 





Don't forget that you can find Diane Gaudynski at:
http://dianegaudynski.net/
blog: http://dianegaudynski.blogspot.com/
https://twitter.com/#!/dianegaudynski