> ~ Insights by SewCalGal ~

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Recap - 2012 FMQ Challenge - June


First, I want to recognize and formally thank Cindy Needham , our June FMQ Expert for her wonderful tutorial. 




Cindy shared many FMQ insights, with an emphasis on the basic 3: a repetitive line, a circle and an S-curve that can come together to create a stunning piece of FMQ workmanship!




Everyone had fun learning and/or improving their FMQ skills using Cindy's tutorial.




At the point of writing this post, there are ~120 quilters that have completed this tutorial and entered to win a monthly prize.  (note: there are over 2,000 participants that have registered to complete this challenge, but only a small percentage enter the monthly challenges).  And many enjoy the ability to complete these tutorials at their leisure vs pushing to complete it in the month it was released.  

 It is fun to look at all of they entries, as each of them are truly beautiful.  SewCalGal hopes everyone will be able to view all of the entries too!  There are also more photos, from those that have shared on our optional Facebook Group and/or the Flickr group.




Quilters of all levels, from all over the world, are participating in this challenge.  While some have experience doing FMQ, many are quite new.  But, we all enjoyed Cindy's tutorial very much!  And many participants are already applying Cindy's insights, and designs shared in this tutorial to their projects.





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


THANK YOU Cindy!




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, but 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.

Participants that do complete the monthly tutorial, in the month that it was released, and choose to enter per the rules on the original tutorial post, will be eligible to win a monthly prize.  For the June tutorial, there are three prizes and the winners will be announced ~ mid-July.

I do want to recognize and thank our sponsors for this challenge:


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


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
logo 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
Pieceful Quilting Holiday Package w/ Drawer Tray
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)

sampler pack of 5 threads (12) which will be used in the monthly "bundle" prizes, every month.


Silk Stars Thread kit, with 12 spools of 40 wt threads, that was awarded to a winner in the January Challenge:

Aurifil Silk Stars Thread Collection-


note:  This prize was awarded during the January challenge.

SewSlip

SewSlip has donated 12 SewSlips, to be awarded to the winner of each monthly "bundle".
Revolving Sewslip images
Sewline: Trio Three Color Fabric Marking Pencils with an extra refill package to be given to winners of monthly prize bundles.
Sewline Products
Quilters TouchQuilters Touch has donated 12 bundles, each with a value of $27.95, which will be given to the winners of the monthly "prize bundles":
Machinge 1 (Medium)

  • Sew Precise Sew Fast Machine Binding DVD (retail $19.95),

Video
note:  As machingers are sized for the winner, they will be shipped directly to the respective winners of the monthly prize bundles, from Quilters Touch.  The other part of the monthly prize bundle will be shipped to the monthly prize bundle winners from SewCalGal.
Electric Quilt winners' choice of Quiltmaker Quilting Designs software
from Volume 1-7.  This prize will be awarded during one of the monthly challenges, in a month where there will be two winners.



Quiltmaker Volume 7 software


The monthly Prize Bundle for this Challenge includes:
  • a sampler pack of 5 Aurifil threads, donated by Aurifil.
  • a SewSlip, donated by SewSlip
Revolving Sewslip images

















Quilters Touch has donated a pair of  Machingers quilting gloves value $8 each
Machinge 1 (Medium)


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


Video

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




There is still time to enter to win a prize, simply visit the June tutorial for more information. But all entries for this monthly challenge need to be submitted in June, so this is the last day you can enter to win one of three prizes to be randomly awarded to winners of the Juney Challenge.  To clarify, this is not a judged challenge.  Just simply complete the tutorial and follow the instructions to enter, that are posted on the respective tutorial.  

The main page for this challenge, which has a tab under the header of my blog labeled "Free-Motion Quilting Challenge", will be updated mid-July, to announce the winner of the June Challenge. 





My Photo



Don't forget to visit Cindy's blog.  She shares many inspirational quilts, tips and fun insights and I certainly enjoy being a follower.



 



Lastly, The July tuturial will be released tomorrow, July 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. 






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11 comments:

Dana Gaffney said...

Thanks so much to SewCalGal and Cindy for another inspirational month. I enjoyed this one so much, something about filling in those smaller spaces made it fun and creative.

Carole M said...

This is the 1st month I was not able to complete on time. But I figured better to learn it right instead of just slapping something together, so I will get it done next week although I won't be entered into this month's draw. Thank you!

Quilter said...

Thank you Cindy for this tutorial. I am humming and purring outside my comfort zone but still struggling with Disequilibrium. And thanks to SewCal Gal for arranging such great challenges.

Carrie P. said...

this tutorial was really neat.
what great projects some created.
thanks to you both.

Martha said...

Thank-you so much Cindy and SewCalGal. This was a fun and extremely educational tutorial. I am so pleased with my little quilt and could not have done it without your guidance. I also enjoyed seeing all the other quilters creations, tons of fun!!!

Quilting Babcia said...

Thanks so much for this tutorial Cindy. You've inspired all of us and we appreciate the extra effort you made to encourage us as individuals along the way. Thanks also to SewCalGal who is the glue that holds this challenge together so well!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this tutorial, Cindy! It was a lot of work, but worth every moment of it!

Joanna said...

Cindy, thanks so much for sharing your knowledge with those of us who are trying to get a firm handle on FMQ. Your tutorial is inspiring and I really can see myself incorporating circles and striped squares in my work. Once I master them, that is:)

Unknown said...

Thank you Cindy for a wonderful tutorial!
Also a big Thank You to Darlene for this project.

Danih03 said...

I got part of my June winnings the other day!! YAY! I didn't realize I was getting a Sewline TRIO pen too, which I have been wanting to try:D What a great little prize package. Thank you so much!!!! Also, it's my birthday today, so it's like you sent me a birthday present!!!I'm dying to try out all these new goodies. Have a great weekend and Happy 4th of July.When I get the rest, I will post on all the goodies;)

Christine Pollhaus said...

Unfortunately I have been on holidays and could not send in my piece in time. But I had such a lot of fun with this... I have of course a big big T H A N K Y O U !!!
Regards and Hugs from Tine in Germany