FMQ Monthly Challenge - January

I have been making quilts for about 20 years but have only recently yearned to perfect my free motion quilting.  Leah Day's tutorials have been really fantastic; are so easy to follow, but the only answer to mastering this wonderful art is practice, practice and more practice..... and then to practice some more!  

I was so excited to come across a Free Motion Quilting Challenge and thanks to SoCalGal for setting this up with monthly tutorials of different FMQ stitches and taught every month by a different person.  January's stitch is trailing leaves and was taught by Frances Moore.  I would love to show you my practice pieces, starting with "doodling" the pattern on paper (which helps brain, eye, hand co-ordination) to my final stitching on my chosen quilt top.

This is an excellent way of practicing the pattern first.  I did a few pages like this!

 This is the front of my practice piece in green on a quilt sandwich.

 
 And this is the back in a pink colour.  It's good to use a different colour in the bobbin to get your top tension correct.

This is my final FMQ done on my quilt top!  Not too bad I think.  I'm quite happy seeing that it is the first month.  Hopefully by the end of the year and with much more practicing, I will improve.

                                                              Here is a close up view.

Thank you for having a quick lookie.  You are welcome to leave a remark!