Brown - A Learning Exercise

A few weeks ago, during a Montreal Modern Quilt Guild meeting, the name Joe Cunningham came up.  Now please don't throw anything at me, but I had no clue who Joe was.  But many of the members knew of him, one of our members even met him in person, and they all spoke of him very positively.  So when I got home, I immediately went on my computer and Googled him.

One of the things I found during my research was a Craftsy class taught by Joe himself.  The class description was intriguing so I signed up.

After watching a couple of lessons, and feeling completely motivated to try out his method, I went searching through my fabric stash for something I could use to try it out.

I found a yard of a brown print with pink roses along with a beige solid and went for it.  I even went crazy a little and added a few pops of bright pink!


I loved creating this quilt - but do not love the colours or the fabrics I chose.  Totally not my style. But I couldn't let all this fabric and all that work go to waste so I pieced a backing, basted it and decided to use this as a practice piece for free-motion quilting.


I separated the quilt into seven horizontal sections with some wavy lines and then used seven different designs to fill in the sections.  I even used contrasting thread to make sure I would see all the mistakes and try to get better by the end of the section.  And it worked!  The stitching got more and more consistent as I went along.


And you know what happened?  Because this was such a fun learning exercise, I now love this quilt and will proudly show it off at the next MMQG show and tell!  :-)

Has this ever happened to you?  Did you ever not like a project, but pushed through and in the end, when it was all finished, you loved it?

Linking up at Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday and at Quilt Matters for TGIFF because celebrating a finished project with others is so much fun!

Izzy

Comments

  1. Great quilting. That's a good way to practice. I also don't know who Joe Cunningham is.

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  2. Never heard of Joe Cunningham either so don't feel so bad you are not alone :) How nice that you came to love your quilt after all that work.

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  3. Yes, it definitely has. Way to go, Isabelle! I took that class with Joe too and it was very inspiring. So glad you linked up with TGIFF!

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  4. Love the pops of pink! I usually abandon projects that I don't like. Kudos to you for making the most of it!

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  5. The pink really adds life to it. Love your quilting on it too!!

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  6. I am not familiar with Joe Cunningham either...but I will check it out! Good for you taking this on and the quilting is wonderful!

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  7. This is so cool, Izzy! Your fmw looks awesome! And the pops of pink really make the quilt look modern even with the floral fabric. Very inspiring! And ps I have no idea who he is either so I'll google it too:)

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  8. He is a skilled and artistic quilter, but he is also a talented and humorous entertainer. If you ever get the chance to see him perform (he sings and talks about quilting), go for it!

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  9. This is an amazing quilt!! I have had the same experience, that a quilt that started out as okay ended up making me love it in the end! How's your new machine going? I'm going to watch your posts carefully as I may be interested in one :-)

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  10. I'll admit that I have never her of Joe Cunningham but I will have to go and check out his class. Your free motion quilting looks excellent.

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  11. I DO know who Joe Cunningham is, and the process sounds like something I would love. I am not OCD enough for really precise piecing. I am a cut first, plan later kinda gal. But I don't like the look of Joe's finished quilts (for the most part). I am very impressed with your quilt, though.

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  12. J'ai regardé en diagonale le cours de Joe Cunningham sur Crafsty cet automne. Même si je n'ai essayé aucune de ses idées directement, ça aide à lâcher le contrôle sur le résultat final. Et il faut bien utiliser le tissu que l'on a depuis parfois trop longtemps. Ton FMQ est vraiment très bien, je n'appelle pas ça de la pratique. Elle va bien ta nouvelle Juki ? En passant, je vais essayer de passer faire un tour le 31.

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