Wednesday, October 1, 2014

WiP Wednesday: Trying Something New

I tend not to try new things because I'm afraid they won't turn out well or that they'll be too much work. This week I tried a few new things and I'm so in love with them I think it may make me more brave in the future!

Check out these awesome fishy scales! I don't consider myself good at free motion quilting. In fact, it really freaks me out. The possibility of ruining a quilt I made makes me stay safe. However, I really wanted these little fish to have scales so I got over it and tried it out. I'm so happy!

Here's one from the front. They are not at all perfect but they are pretty adorable and turned out WAY better than I expected but just as I hoped they would. I'm testing this pattern for the lovely Kitty at Night Quilter. I should be available soon and I'll share the finish this week!

I also like sticking to my tried and true crochet patterns. A sweet customer contacted me for a custom hat and I readily agreed. It's been fun to try a new pattern. This one has a lot of bits to make and sew on. It is going to be a Dalmatian for her baby boy for Halloween. I can't wait to see it come together.

I also get nervous changing patterns around. I worry that I won't have enough fabric or that it won't look good. I have no problem making them bigger, I do that all the time, but changing an aspect makes me worry that I'll end up liking the original better. This particular pattern wanted half the smaller squares to be four patches and the other half to me a single piece. I wasn't feeling that so I changed them all to a single piece and I think I like it better. I hope I don't change my mind! I hope to finish this one as my October ALYoF goal.

Now this is not something new I tried. It's a fabulous bundle of fabric! The Intrepid Thread was having a flash sale and I took part in a big way. Several of these are bindings for upcoming quilts, two are backing, and the rest are for fronts. I wish there was more time in the day to make all the things!
Well, that's me this week. I'm excited about what is happening here and thanks for stopping by! I'm linking up with WiP Wednesday.

8 comments:

  1. Your fish scales are AWESOME! And I love the use of the text fabric in among the fish - too much fun! Can't wait to see the entire project once your testing is complete!

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  2. The fish scales are adorable! I too have that same feeling and a piece of advice a good quilty friend gave me "this won't be your last quilt". This has helped me keep it in perspective and if you are learning something new along the way too. Good luck on going outside the comfort zone.

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  3. Love the fish - you did an awesome job! Those are some awesome fabrics too! Glad you stepped out of your comfort zone to try something new with the fish scales

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  4. It can be so hard to try new things - I know what you mean. I like to make things that I know will turn out nice too. Your fish are way cool - I love that background fabric (I have some in my stash too!) It looks like you have a bit of eyelashing going on with your quilting - you might need to check your tension, or if your tension is OK, you might need to either slow down your hands or speed up your foot while you are quilting. Often quilting a tighter pattern like this is harder than quilting a bigger pattern. Last comment... what fabric have you used for those ALYoF blocks? What a gorgeous mix.

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  5. Your FMQ is fantastic Julie! :-)

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  6. Hey Julie - its nice to hear that you are afraid of FMQ. I have three tops that waiting to be sandwiched and quilted and I am afraid of ruining them

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  7. Your scales are awesome!! I also tend to veer on the safe side when it comes to quilting, since I'm such a newbie at FMQ, but I think you have inspired me to be gutsy and try to quilt my fishies some scales, too! Thanks again so much for pattern testing for me and making my vision a reality! The low volume text print background with rainbow fish looks even awesomer (yes, it's now a word) than I imagined!

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  8. Great job on the fish scales!! I tend to have trouble finding the happy medium of speed/hand movement when working on repeating shapes that small. Your stitches look really nice!

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