Finishes and a challenge for this year: 26 fmq tutorials!

My challenge

Some quilting friends ask me to write tutorials for the gifts I make out of fmq samplers. I am a teacher and teachers like to share knowledge. So I like the tutorial idea. To share knowledge I must gather knowledge and practice to know what is worth sharing and what is not. I also like blogs with challenges. So I will combine a challenge with the request of my friends.
My challenge for this year: every two weeks a tutorial for a small project to practice your fmq skills with pictures of the finished project. So I had at least  to finish at least 26 fmq projects too!

Finishes

I have been busy this week with quilting and blogging and finished some  projects. It was very, very hot in The Nertherlands so the sewing machine and lap top were on my balcony the whole week!We will have dinner with friends to night on our balcony, so to day I am busy with cleaning the house, shopping and preparing dinner. Tomorrow  my sewing machine is back on the balcony again!

By the way an earlier finish:  Cacti mini quilt can you see on the website of Richard and Tanya quilts:

Finish #1

This week I finished two mug rugs with the same hyper quilted flowers of  place mats I sew two weeks ago for a dear friend. I made the mug rugs and place mats to practice hyper quilting and (micro) fillers. Of course also to practice my binding! The mug rugs have 7! very nice mitered corners and 1 a little bit less nice, but much better than the binding of the place mats two weeks ago. Next time binding had to be perfect!
I shoot pictures of my quilting and make sketches, so I have the first tutorial for my  challenge! As a bonus I posted the tutorial for the matching place mats.
Together it is #1

One of the place mats, same flowers as the flowers of the mug rugs

Finish #2

I do not like stippling, only micro stippling. To exercise another meandering filler, I made four samplers. And of course I made place mats out of them for friends. After binding the samplers, I googled pictures of their tableware and used the shapes on their plates, cups and saucers for the thread play on the place mats. I started this project three weeks ago when we had a barbecue in their garden, but I did not finish in time.
Next time we have dinner at their place will be after this summer, but I do not have to worry about the present this time!

The pattern of the quilting: for every double circle 2-3 small circles and 2-3 curves

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The pattern is my own design but I am sure it is not unique and somewhere else designed by another quilter.

#3(Only seven finished yet!)

 I made some coasters of the pile with mini samplers of the free motion quilting projectof Leah Day. I used tricot bias from the market. Need to buy some more to finish them all.

Finish #4 Six postcards

Postcards out of sampler for my Look #2: At the beach, wall hanging
I collected a lot of pictures of shells and things you would find on the beach on Pinterest. I draw shells and mini shell fillers on paper and made a sampler to see which quilted patterns on which scale are strong enough to use for my wall hanging.
I made six postcards out of the sampler. Two with feathers just for fun.
First time my Husqvarna stitch a decent satin stitch! (Don tell it to anyone: I think I was the problem and not my Husqvarna.) Love the binding with the different colors of the thread.

Still there are WIP's and I found another UFO

1. some Posting the Giraffe pattern. (next week)
2. Look #2: At the beach(busy with samplers and drawing patterns)
3. A doll quilt for my granddaughter Salijn. (this weekend)
4. A dress for Sascha and Sarah (Next week, Sarah I want to finish it before tuesday)
5. I already pieced the top of two ladders and snakes play quilts for my granddaughters. I want to applique the snakes, ladders and numbers. Also two big dices. The play quilts must be ready before their birthdays in Augustus and September. (One finished first week of august (Salijn's birthday) and the other one first week of September (Sascha's birthday)
6. Two more red place mats for my daughter in law. So I can give it to her the next time we go to see them. (next week)
7. The fabrics for two more Balloon baby quilts are cut weeks ago. This week one finish. The one I will give to my youngest daughter when she finally can tell me she is pregnant. (finished within three months)
8. There is another UFO. I started piecing this quilt, a double wedding ring, before I discovered fmq. It is a picnic quilt for my eldest daughter. 

Thanks everybody for your kind words!

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If you need to reach me feel free to e-mail me at marelizeries[at]gmail[dot]com

Thanks so much for reading

 Keep quilting!

Maartje Quilt
Amsterdam