Straight lines are my speciality. But a few months back I went out and got a free motion quilting foot, opening up my world from straight lines to curves. Except I didn’t find this new foot particularly easy to use. I read somewhere that its like drawing with a pencil except instead of moving the pencil, you move the paper. But I wasn’t going to let a few wonky curves slow me down. So with some practice I was finally able to incorporate the technique into a project.

Above is a project I did for class using straight lines for the background and a free motion flower in the middle. To create a theme, I used a japanese binding and a japanese style of quilting called Sashiko. I previously talked about this technique on a quilt, click here to see the previous post. I have wanted to use this technique for a while so this book cover was a good way to try out two new techniques in one shot. The inside of the book is filled with handmade paper, all made in class. Can’t wait to try this on a larger scale, in a pillow or full size quilt.

UPDATE: Coming up next,  my very first hand silk screened fabric