FMQ Lesson #4 // Skill Builder BOM

How are your Chev N’ Hex and Diamond Carat blocks coming along? I know these two blocks are hard, but rest assured they may be the most time consuming of the entire year. I have seen a few finished blocks pop up in the flickr group and I am blown away by how beautiful they are!

Diamond Carat by Abby West

Diamond Carat by Lauren Jonkman

Diamond Carat by Nanners1222

Diamond Carat by Christine Slaughter

Diamond Carat by craftykat Diamond Carat by mrslair Diamond Carat by Cristy Fincher Chev N' Hex by Karen Chatters Chev N' Hex by SusieDW Chev N' Hex by SheLuvs2Craft Chev N' Hex by Jan Roberts

There are more in progress blocks in the Flickr Group so be sure to check them out.

Lesson #4

This month I decided to stick with the same quilting designs (organic lines, wave, pebbles, swirls, echoing) we have used the last three months and practice them even more. I want you all to really feel comfortable with these designs before we start to introduce new designs. When I introduce new designs in the coming months I will bring back the FMQ video tutorials.

Your Progress

How are you doing with the Free Motion Quilting thus far? What are the challenges? Do you feel you are getting a little more comfortable with each block? Can you see yourself quilting an entire quilt with FMQ?

Chev N' Hex Block

For the Chev N’ Hex block I decided to quilt a different design in each colored chevron.  To quilt your block in the same way…

• Began by first stitching in the ditch around the block/border.
• While you still have your background color thread in your machine pebble stitch all of the border and bg color hexagons.
• Fill one color chevron with various sized swirls.
• Fill another color chevron with wavy lines about 1/4″ apart alternating directions per hexagon.
• For the final two colored chevrons echo stitch 1/4″ inside the shape of the hexagon chevron.
• Fill one chevron with bubbles.
• Fill the last chevron with arches.
• Bury the threads.
• Trim block down to 14.5″.

For the Diamond Carat block I wanted to give the look of a shiny diamond. To quilt your block in the same way…

• Stitch 1/4″ from the edge of your diamond around all sides with the bg color thread.
• Quilt wavy lines about one inch apart coming out from the diamond around all sides.
• Go back and fill the one inch spaces with more wavy lines.
• Fill some of the space with pebble quilting in various places.
• Switch your machine over to a regular straight stitch with a stitch length of 3, and install your walking foot. Stitch 1/4″ inside all pieces. This will really secure the applique in place which I highly suggest.
• Bury the threads.
• Trim block down to 14.5″ square making sure the diamond is centered perfectly.

Lesson Download

Alyssa