Wow, so sorry for not posting lately. Life seems to get in the way. I have found time for quilting, well a little at least. The gardens are beckoning me now that the weather has warmed and I spend a lot of time outside. The last two days, however, have been cold and rainy. Today is just a little on the cool side so I decided to get to work here.

First Design

This is my latest post for the Free-Motion Quilt Challenge. This month we had a great tutorial (again) from Mr. Don Linn. His tips about changing a pattern and making a template from tule was just wonderful. I did both, only I used two different quilt designs and combined them to make one.

Cut out portion of 1st design

I cut out the portion of the first design that I wanted to keep. I then found a design I wanted to incorporate into the first design. I liked the second one because I am a feather fanatic, but I didn't feel like taking the time to make the first design outfitted with feathers. This was a great way to change a design without much fuss.

Second Design

First Design over Second

I reduced the size of the design so that I could use it in the hoop I had available and then used Mr. Linn's method using the tule.

Hard to see, tule and pattern

I experimented with four different marking pencils. The one I use the most is the Fine Point Mark-B-Gone Pen. I was satisfactory and I will probably use it because of how easy the marks are removed from the quilt. The second winner was the Watersoluble Graphite pencil. The marks show up very nicely, but I have found the graphite hard to remove from some fabrics. The Fine Point Disappearing Ink Pen (top picture) was so easy to trace with and shows up well. The problem with this pen is the disappearing part. It is fine if you are going to do your quilting within 24 hours. For me, that's not happening on most big projects! My least favorite pencil was the yellow water soluble marking pencil. It is always, for me, very hard to see.

Here is the sample I quilted using these methods. Hope this was helpful.