Training

When doing any form of Free Form Quilting (FFQ), it's a VERY good idea to train a bit before heading for the real thing (especially if the real thing is a whoop-ass huge quilt)

So, what are you going to do if you don't want to waste precious pieces of fabric on something you won't be able to use in the end: You (or in this case, I) make placemats.

This also had the added bonus that I didn't just train doing FFQ, I also had a chance to try out two other techniques.

The first one, in the picture on the left and the right side is using 'Quilters Grid', which is a kind of fusible quilting aid with a 1" grid printed on on. Using lots and lots of little 2" squares, you lay them out, fuse them to the quilters grid with you iron and then can sew them easily together without them shifting of flying around.

Second technique to try is some paper piecing using 1.5" hexagons printed on and then cut out of freezer paper. The little hexagons of paper are then ironed on to little pieces of fabric and everything is sewn together by hand.

For the FFQ I drew lines on the farbic using a marking pen that disappears once you iron over it. After those three placemats I felt comfortable enough to not mark the quilt beforehand.