FMQ Challenge - April

April's tutorial was given by Don Linn and was how to transfer a quilting design on to your quilt top tracing the design on to a piece of tulle set into a quilting hoop, with a permanent marker.  This must then be ironed to set the permanent ink so that the ink does not come off on the quilt top.  Then with a purple marking pen (which should disappear when wet so please try it on a scrap piece of the quilt fabric first), trace the design lightly on to your quilt top.   It can then be easily seen to machine quilt.  This is an ingenious method of transferring a quilting design and I know that I will use it again. There was no "doodling" to do this time!

Tracing on the tulle

The design traced with a permanent marker onto the tulle.  I have used a piece of white paper under the tulle so that the tracing shows up nicely to photograph.

I chose to do the sample design which Don gave us as it fitted nicely into an 8 inch square of my prepared quilt for this FMQ Challenge.  I used the usual Seralon in the bobbin, Colorful embroidery thread in green through my Titanium 80/12 Quilting needle and Gutterman Sulky 100% cotton in peach/green variegated thread to micro-stipple the background.  I also chose to do a little embroidery on the leaves.

Quilted design

Close-up

Here is a close-up showing the embroidery on one of the leaves and the micro-stippling.












Thank you Don for an awesome tutorial on how to transfer a design on to a quilt top for machine quilting.  I really enjoyed this and am intending to buy your book on quilt designs!