Confidence Comes with Practice

A few weeks ago I attended an all day free motion quilting workshop. I'd already taken the leap into FMQing on my last 2 quilt projects. On Puppy Patchwork I did some stippling, spirals, and stars; on Spinning Stars I did mostly stippling (you can see both of those here). The biggest win about taking the workshop is that it gave me time - time to practice my quilting uninterrupted for 6 hours, time to gain more confidence in my abilities, time to spend with other adults who enjoy quilting. It was invaluable. Here are a few of the practice pieces that were done in class. I really need to work on feathers, as you can see on the left yellow panel. I really enjoy making spirals (the red panel) and I was rather proud of my very first poinsettia flower on the right yellow panel.

Right now I'm working on some placemats for my mother-in-law to go with her newly decorated kitchen. Here is a picture of the 3rd placemat on my machine. My overall leaf pattern has definitely gotten better since my first placemat and I'm sure the last one will look the best. In addition to my growing confidence, I'm also getting much faster and more accurate which is a bonus! Right now I feel like I can tackle anything if I just take it one step at a time. How's that for confidence! :)