Free Motion Quilt Along....Late Start

I'm late, I'm late for a very important date!  But better late than NEVER!!  Leah Day is hosting a "Free Motion Quilt Along".  As I understand it, each week of 2012 there will be a new free motion quilting exercise offered by Leah Day (http://www.freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/2012/01/lets-start-new-project.html) and then we can link from our blogs to Leah Day's blog and show the work that we have done so all that are participating can see each others work.  I wanted to participate in these exercises since I first learned of them but, me being me, I procrastinated.  Until yesterday.  Grabbing the laptop and making a mad dash for my sewing room (known to me as "Sewingville")  I locked myself in for a fun afternoon.  I watched  Leah's video and watched it again (oh why didn't I scroll down the page?  I'll never know).  First I took my messy cheater quilt bat that I use to get tension correct and to practice a little before working on a "real" quilt project and I practiced a bit on that nasty messy thing - I really filled it up with horrible U's.  Then I found some old poly/cotton fabric that I'm sure I'll never want for any other projects (at least I think I never will want it/until I used it and then, me being me, I thought, "Oh I could find a use for it someday." Then I slapped myself.  I've owned this fabric since my beginning days of quilting when it was near impossible to find any halfway suitable fabric for quilting projects down here in México and I'd buy just about anything if I thought it had potential.)  Ok, so I used that terrible fabric with some terrible thread.  Hey, it was good practice.  THEN I batted up a yard or more of white Bramante (it's fabric that is used for sheets down here - it's not like percale in United States sheets).  I use it sometimes for hand dyeing when I can't find good muslin for dyeing.  Anyway, I have a butt load of it.  Bramante is pretty inexpensive (another plus).  I batted it using flannel for batting (also inexpensive).  Following Leah's suggestions I marked lines 3" part across the fabric and off I went practicing making U shapes and Lobster Claws and all that fun stuff.  The flannel it very flimsy and limp and keeping the sample flat was a challenge.  But I did get the hang of moving my hands along to keep up the quilting.  My first U's weren't too great - the flimsiness was a hampering my progress.  But I have to say by the end of the exercise I saw improvement!!  Another note:  I mentioned I did not scroll down the page after the video lesson.  I was confused.  The first modified U shapes after just making the big U's and the half sized U's, I understood to be shapes like the Lobster Claws following the video BUT scrolling down I saw that the first modification of the U shape was more like Leah said "a Peace Sign".  There was still room on my fabric sampler to practice the Peace Signs.  Over all it was a great day of quilting.  One thing.....my foot pedal to my sewing machine was acting up to I used the pedal-less option on my sewing machine and that was OK too.

Hola amigas en español.  Esta es un “post” muy largo y tengo miedo que mi español no es suficiente para traducir todo.  PERO, voy a darles el reporte en breve. 

Hay una mujer, Leah Day, que tiene un blog dedicada a quilting manos libres.  La dirección es:  http://www.freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/p/start-here.html.  Este año ella tiene una meta.  Leah nos da lecciones en manos libres cada semana.  Las lecciones empezó el principio de enero.  Estoy tarde en empezar pero ayer hice la primera lección.  La lección fue dedicada en hacer la forma de U y figuras usando la forma de U.  Fue difícil para empezar.  Hice dos intentos antes para practicar que no voy a mostrar a nadie.  Aquí muestro fotos del último intento.     

 ABove are the first U's (with the Peace Signs I added at the end of the exercise above the U's - Don't we always need more practice space?). The half sized U's are below the big U's and then you can see the Lobster Claws below the half sized U's.    Arriba, los primeros U's grandes (con los "Peace Signs" que hice al fin del exercico) abajo de los U's grandes son los U's de tamaño mitad de los U's grandes.  Mas abajo una forma que se llama "Garra de Langosta".

 More U's / Más U's

 Here the shape called "Lobster Claw" going in different directions / Aquí más "Garras de Langosta" corriendo en direciones differentes

 Below more Lobster Claws you can see my Peace Signs.  Here they are shown running up and down.  The Yellow lines are 3" part.  En esta foto, más "Garras de Langosta" y abajo pueden ver los "Peace Signs".  Las liñas armarillas, Hay 3 pulgadas entre cada uno.

 Here I want to show the improvement I made in making the Big U's.  Much better than before!.  /  Aquí quiere mostrar como mejoré en el hecho de los U's Grandes.  ¡Mucho mejor que antes!

 Showing off more of the Big U's. /  Chuleando más de los U's Grandes.

Here I'm showing the stippling......it's the best stippling I've ever done!! YEAH!! Thanks Leah Day!!! /  Aquí quiero mostrar el "stippling"....¡¡¡es lo mejor que he hecho!!!  ¡¡Maraviosa!!  ¡¡¡Gracias Leah Day!!!

 More stippling / Más Stippling