July FMQ challenge

And right on the heels of our June challenge, I can safely say I got July's FMQ done too. I just made the "mistake" of looking on the page on facebook and I know it's not a competition, but the gorgeous work these people (I'd say ladies, but don't want to assume here) are completing is amazing.

Mine is not, but hey, I'm learning, so it's all good. However, I don't think I'll be linking up on facebook :)

I thought July's challenge was a really neat filler. I like this idea of making smaller boxes and filling it. I think I'd need to map it out more carefully on an actual quilt instead of winging it like I did on my practice piece here. I did sketch it, but still not the same. As I mentioned on my June post, my fabric marker wasn't working too well, something I think might help with this style.

So here we go. I am adding pictures of my finished piece, and with my sketch beside, just so show how it translated. I still kind stippling more instinctive than other designs, but, hey, I did try others! Never know unless I try!

June FMQ challenge

Yep, we're at the end of July and I am just getting June's challenge up, but at least I got it done! Hey, maybe didn't qualify for prizes last month, but that's okay. I simply didn't have time in June, and wanted to give it a chance.

So here we go. Here are pictures of the front and back of my June piece. Further down there is a picture of my sketch vs end piece. One way I went sideways on this was that my fabric marker just wasn't marking that well and so it didn't translate well to my piece. I attempted a little dragonfly there... did not work out as well as I hoped but still a cute idea.  I really like good filler ideas, but I think for a full quilt this method would take a lot of pre-planning.

Front of challenge piece

 I added the back because I think when the back looks almost as good as the front you're doing pretty well in the FMQ world.

Back of challenge piece

 Pebbles - I love the look of pebbles, but no matter how hard I tried, I could not get the swing of doing them. These were bigger ones, but I found I had problems skipping from one pebble to the next, although the end result is neat.

 And here is the sketch vs. stitch. I made a mistake adding the feathered part in. Not my thing, oh well!!

Sock Monkey

I've been meaning to post on this for some time now.

A while back my god daughter asked me if I could make her a sock monkey. I had never made a sock monkey before, but could resist when she threw down the "craft smack down".

I found the biggest challenge was actually getting my hands on the proper sock monkey socks. You know, that ones with the red heels. I ended up ordering them online as I could not find them at all locally.

I also scoured the web for a really good sock monkey tutorial. Tutorials that kind of phrase things like "oh you just do this and this and this and you're done" don't work. I need step by step. I found this wonderful one which did the trick.

And so end result? Wonderful! My coworkers think I could sell them. I'll see. I need more socks. I also did this little tutu, because I figured monkey needed clothes.

Pictures!