Free motion challenge and UFOs for April

I am almost out of time for linking up my Free Motion Challenge for April, on Sew Cal Gal..  This month the tutor is Don Linn, and he gave a very informative tutorial on creating a stencil for quilting designs.  These can be used either by machine for free motion work, or for hand quilting.  I tried it out and found it worked very well for transferring a design to the quilt.  He uses tulle for creating the stencil, and it can then be transferred to the quilt by whatever drawing means you feel comfortable with.  I used a frixon pen, but you can also use a water erasable pen.

After practising, I tried making a design stencil to use on my Bliss quilt when I get to that stage.  First I photocopied a block to get the flower shape and size.  I  traced the design on paper, then put the tulle into a hoop and traced the design onto the tulle using a fine permanent marker.  After that it was a simple matter to draw over the lines to transfer onto my fabric using the frixon pen.

I read of this method some time ago, but had never tried it until this month. I was pleased with the result, and will use this method again when I need a quilting design.  Mine is a simple design but it works equally well with a more complex design. 

I have also completed my UFOs for this month for Sew Its Finished.  I finished the other 2 cushions, so have the 3 stained glass cushions now complete and waiting to go to their new home with my daughter.

I made these blocks some years ago when I wanted to make a wall hanging for a friend.  I was trying the different methods of applique – using vliesofix to attach the flowers  and leaves (pink rose), not using vliesofix,  (gold one) and I cant think what I was trying out in the top one – maybe the colours as the wallhanging was in those colours, but with 3 flowers.

Stained glass blocks are always very effective, I guess because of the bias outline.