Free Motion Quilting Challenge-Month 1 Sample Done

I've decide to take the pledge over at SewCalGal and have finished the first month's lesson. This is going to be good for me, because I have many quilt tops to quilt. Names will be drawn and prizes awarded if you want to join in.

Here is my first sample. I decided not to practice the heart leaves, because I have a quilt that has leaves that look a bit more like this and thought I might get a lot of practice using a leaf design if I do one that looks more like those leaves.

The fabric looks like this (if you click on it you can see the leaves more clearly) and is in about 6 different colors. This is a quilt that has been pinned for at least a month, and probably more waiting for me to finish. It is pinned with fleece for the batting/backing so should be pretty easy to move through the machine as I practice these leaves.

Because I have done a little bit of free motion quilting, and the practice block I made was 15 inches square, and I didn't want to do these leaves over the whole thing I decided to try a bit of a different pattern too. I have a DVD from the Pajama Quilter and she practices the designs before she quilts them by using a white board and marker. I have one but it is stashed behind some stuff at the moment, so thought I'd just use some paper.

Here are the first sketches I did, kinda ugly and the lines don't flow very well. I turned the page and did a couple more. The one on the left side was a bit better, but the leaves just kind of mushed together. I did see the last group of leaves and saw that when I had a group of three I liked it better, so that's what I did on the right side. As I was going from group to group though, I saw that there was space that needed filling, so I added the swirl.

I set this page near the sewing machine, then sewed this sample.  I actually like it OK. I don't know if I'd want this all over a quilt, but it looks OK.