Jesters Hats

For the past twelve days I have been practicing the design called "Jesters Hats", August's tutorial by Wendy Sheppard  for the FreeMotion Challenge at SewCalGal. I found this very hard to re-create on paper let alone doing it in freemotion on fabric.  But I do persist, and 60 sheets of paper later I gave it a try on fabric.  I think I got it, finally!  At least to my satisfaction.  I see jesters hats, do you? 

SewCalGal 2012 FMQ Challenge Results for August - challenges galore!

1.  Study Wendy Sheppard's post on SewCalGal.  Check.  Read posts onSewCalGal's August FMQ post.  Check. Doodling for days...drawing ready.  Check.

2.  New quilt sandwich with a batting I haven't tried before.  Check.

3.  After 15 minutes of re-arranging, machine is completely ready to go.

New 90/14 top stitching needle, 30w Sulky in top, Aerofil in bobbin, feed dogs down, replaced embroidery bobbin case with free motion quilting bobbin case, lowered table, etc.

4.  I'm ready to rock like Jack Black in "School of Rock"!

5.  My machine is NOT!

Spend 10+ minutes checking over everything...I find the...

More adjustments.  Change bobbin cases back.  Adjust tension many times.  Try, try again and...

A little better, but thread breaks after six to eight inches of quilting.

Tension is still off.

I've used this same spool of 30w Sulky before with success.

???

Any suggestions?

Maybe I'm missing something completely??

I am thinking about using 30w Sulky in top and bobbin....what do you think?  

Would it be too thick for the bobbin or not?

By the way, I love the Jester's hats design that Ivory Spring demonstrated for this month's SewCalGal 2012 FMQ Challenge.  Thank you - I love the design!!  Apparently, it doesn't love me!  LOL!!!

August Challenge - Jesters' Hats

This month's teacher is Wendy Sheppard.  Her tutorial is on free motion quilting jesters' hats as a unique filler design.  I started doodling jester hats.  At first, it was really hard to fill the entire page without getting stuck in the middle somewhere.  In total I doodled 40 pages before stiching this design out.

I stitched out a practice piece to ensure the tension was good top and bottom.

I used Rainbow 100% polyester variegated serger thread in the needle and bobbin.

I found it easier to fill the space evenly by starting in the corner of the quilting space rather than the middle.

 

This is the back side.

 

 

 

Happy quilting all!