Free Motion Quilting Practice

I've been wanting to break away from the meander stitch and matchstick quilting with my walking foot though I love both and both are such necessary stitches when it comes to quilting.  And so I've been practicing pebbles, swirls and then resorting to my wishbones when frustrated.

Yesterday's Pebbles

Today's Pebbles

What I was neglecting to do with pebbles was to reverse direction in making the next pebble.  I improved by being conscious of where to go next and just rounding my motions.

 Swirls.  I love 'em but I'm not very good at them.  Practice practice practice!  It'll come in time I know, but I've also slowed my machine speed to medium rather than fast which has seemed to improve my stitches.

And here's my practice block which I've over quilted but is helping me to figure out how much quilting and what stitches to use on my stash busters sampler row by row quilt.