FMQ Friday: Ugly Feathers for Everyone!

I decided to try some more free-motion quilting today. It's been six weeks since I first tried FMQ on my Bernina, and I haven't given it another go since then. It's no surprise that this was the outcome of today's practice technique.

Whoa. That is some ugly feather action and some really horrifying echoing. It was actually painful to watch it happening while I was quilting. I tried to draw some feathers on paper after quilting this and noticed a lot of the same ugly feather shapes and terrible echoing.

Yikes. I have a long way to go.

I need to reduce any friction that may be preventing me from practicing my FMQ, so here's the plan:
1) Make a stack of practice sandwiches and keep them within arm's reach of my sewing machine.
2) Put a reminder on my calendar to practice.
3) Keep writing down the date, thread used, and tension settings on my samples.

For this pitiful plume, I used Isacord 40 weight in the top and a Dual Duty XP poly thread in the bobbin. My tension was set as low as it could go, and I was pretty happy with that. I like to use contrasting thread colors while practicing, but using the same color would hide any of the minor tension issues I'm having.


If you're in need of motivation and inspiration like me, hop on over to SewCal Gal's blog and participate in the year-long challenge.

I'm linking up with Remodelaholic and Finding Fabulous. I hope you have a weekend full of crafts!