fearless fills and frills - free motion quilting class

finally catching up on talking about my free motion quilting class!
i have to say, i quite enjoyed this one.  the class had about 6 of us in it, which was nice.  the experience level was mixed, from ladies who had been doing fmq on their machine forever, to people like myself who had just taken the one class.  this class really built on the last one, giving us the next level of where to go.  we stitched ferns, strings of pearls and shells as border pieces.
here's the entirety of the first block we stitched on.
we started with the fern by stitching the middle section, then doing the right fronds (bottom portion) and the the left (top).  jenny lyon, our instructor, mentioned right handed people usually have a tougher time on the "left" side, but i actually found that size easier to stitch.
the shells were pretty easy, having done the double drip previously.  getting the angle right was a little tricky, that's for sure.  also, the string of pearls were... okay.  perfect circles aren't my jam really, but neither is things in straight lines.  i much prefer the "all over" look of things.  these all look too organized for my personal quilting style.
these two were a little more my style for sure.  the cute little scallop hills were fun.  some a little wider than others, but it gave them a bit of character for sure.  i REALLY like the one next to it, which she called stacked bananas.  just a bunch of looping back and forth, changing directions whenever felt fit.  this one was also very similar to the double drip from the first class... which might be why i liked it so much.
the other one i didn't get a closer up one of this jenny gave a different name, but i know it is called orange peel.  it requires a grid, which adds time to the project, but it was a nice little stitching motif.  it could be fun to do bigger as well, so that could be a potential for the future.
these second two were interesting as well.  the first one on the left was basically breaking the quilting in to chunks and essentially just echoing the lines zoned out.  almost like a topographic map... at least i think that is the name that i remember from earth science.  anyways, the second one is swirls and bubbles.  this one was a cute motif, but i had a bit of a struggle to get my swirls to lay the right way to not look funky.  the little bubbles helped balance things out for sure.
things i took away from this class:
more motifs.  obviously.
learned about using things as borders.  not sure if this is something i'll use, but i know how to do it now!
benefits of gloves/something grippy.  now, i'm the only one who showed up to class without gloves, but it wasn't required so i wasn't being a rebel.  having long fingers anyways, i have a hard time buying gloves because they really don't fit.  i did borrow some hand grip things from jenny, from a brand called "the steady betty."  these "betty bands"seemed to do the job awesomely, and i didn't have to worry about my fingers being the right length (or not, in reality).  should i see more fmq becoming a constant thing in my sewing future, i will likely invest in a pair of these.  next time i end up at meissner's, i'll also likely look for a straight stitch plate for my machine.  i heard it does wonders for piecing as well.
and there you have it!  part of me wishes that i did my 21 day practice after this class because it would have given me more motifs to practice, but i can also see how that would also be overwhelming.  oh the struggle!  i believe meissner's offers one more free motion quilting class that i am debating taking, so hang tight to see if that happens.  in the mean time, i'll be working on catching up blogging and block piecing so be sure to pop by my instagram to see what is happening :)