2020 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge - Day Eight - Skills I Wish I Had

There is not much in quilting that I have not tried. Some techniques I do very well, some not so well.

I could be better at actual patchwork - I've thought about someday, when I am retired, possibly doing one of Bonnie Hunter's quilts just to get better at patchwork. but it does not seem like a very useful skill for the kind of quilting I actually like doing. Besides which, you end up with a quilt that looks just like a thousand (or more) others if you follow her color suggestions.

The major skill that I really need to work on is machine quilting. I have seen some really really fantabulous examples. I really need a bigger machine setup. I have done FMQ on Jenny Lind  and its ok, but I don't have enough cleared off space to do anything big. I also have done FMQ on Aurora (the Red-Eye treadle) - that is pretty fun! But there again, Aurora is not set up to work on anything big. There was a guy - Tim Latimer - that did marvelous FMQ with a treadle, but I haven't seen him post in a while.

This is probably the best machine quilting I have done so far - Quilt is 'Fire Mountain' - from a quarter of a bargello quilt along at Retreat in 2016 or 2017. I worked on the applique vine at work during lunch for months. But. its only a wall hanging. I have yet to do a larger quilt with machine quilting that I think was done right.

Another example is Embellished Linen - it's pretty tiny too. Most of the quilting on this one is actually holding the lace and the antimacassar linen piece onto the quilt - there is a bit of FMQ in the center of the linen piece. It looks better in real life. There is a hole under the silk flowers and a few of the lace scallops had damage as well that got covered up by the buttons. 

This piece was done after I saw how lovely a handkerchief could be quilted. Mine is nowhere near as well done as the one I saw. 

Link to the Muppin Blog Writing Challenge