Finished your quilt top and ready to quilt? Continue reading for 10 quilting designs for beginners perfect for your first quilt!
Finished your quilt top and ready to quilt? Continue reading for 10 quilting designs for beginners perfect for your first quilt!
Create impressive geometric quilting patterns with these straight line quilting designs and foolproof walking foot quilting designs.
Using a walking foot is the easiest and quickest way to quilt borders. Continue reading for 7 easy border quilting ideas using a walking foot.
Create impressive geometric quilting patterns with these straight line quilting designs and foolproof walking foot quilting designs.
Although it may seem like a regular sewing machine is not capable of free-motion quilting, the truth is you can do it on a sewing machine. Using a regular
You know, I've been so bad at blogging this year that I was embarrassed when a couple of friends pointed out that I never blogged about the new book. Yup, I wrote another book, this time about the quilting process. Most of you know I love that walking foot and so I set about putting it through its paces and trying to get the most out of it and the result was WALK: Master Machine Quitling With Your Walking Foot. The walking foot is awesome for straight lines as we know, and I'll never disparage simple linear quilting, but that's only the start of the creative quilting options that are possible with the walking foot. Just check out the back cover of the book to see what I mean. WALK has been selling like hotcakes since its publication in December and has been one of the top selling quilting books on Amazon. It popped back up to number one once it got back in stock and I thought we should celebrate with a giveaway. Just comment here and let me know what you love about walking foot quilting to win a copy of the book. Leave a comment by Monday 9 a.m. CST. After I wrote the book I've continued to push myself to find more walking foot friendly quilt designs and I'll be sharing some how to's for those soon. In the mean time, if you haven't got the book, check with your local quilt shop, library or get it in your hands the Amazon way. Walk on!!
Did you know that I have an archive of free motion quilting designs ideas on the blog already? Well, it was from my Sewcial Bee Sampler quilt where I made the quilt intentionally with the quilt as …
Continue reading for 5 meander practice exercises that will help you learn to put FMQ skills on autopilot so you can focus more on quilting.
If there’s one block in all of quilting that you should know how to make, it’s the Half Square Triangle (HST). To me, it’s the most versatile block in quilting and you can do end…
Check out these quick and versatile walking foot quilting designs that even beginner quilters can master! The walking foot is a powerful attachment for your domestic sewing machine that make it possible for you to beautifully quilt your own modern quilts!
Tips for planning and quilting with your home sewing machine by Christa Watson including using a walking foot and free motion design.
See my second post on Graffitti Quilting here! Some of you were wondering how I decided which free motion quilting patterns to use, and when, while quilting my "Dyed" quilt . I thought I'd do a few posts on how to create an "improv" or "graffiti" quilted background fi
In this post, you can explore your options of machine quilting designs as a beginner and create your first quilting project.
I sure hope you have learned a thing or two along the way with this series. If you just joined us, start from the beginning.
The best way to get perfect quilting is to transfer quilting designs onto the quilt top before stitching. Continue reading to see how!
Free motion quilting is still something I get asked about the most. It's so simple, and also so daunting at the same time! I'm DEFINITELY not an expert, and don't look too close at my stitches, but good news....it doesn't have to be perfect, AND it's a great stress reliever! ;) While I was quilting...Read More
Do you want to do quilting differently this time? Try and learn how to do FMQ in this post on the free motion quilting tutorial.
I'm teaching a Free Motion Quilting class starting in April at my LQS, Heartstrings and Heirlooms. I finished up the class sample over the weekend. In the class the students will do larger samples, but I needed a small book of designs to advertise the class. As you can see in the above end view, I used three different types of batting for my sample book - Quilter's Dream 100% Cotton, Hobbs 80/20 (80% cotton and 20% polyester), and a 100% wool. I used a tutorial from a recent Quilting Arts Magazine issue (the February/March 2014 issue) to make my little book. The instructions involved drawing some lines on a piece of fabric, then sewing on the lines with a walking foot to make a larger sheet and baste the layers together. Then you quilt your designs and cut the "pages" apart. The tutorial in the magazine was very good. If you are interested in making a book like mine, I suggest you get a copy of the magazine. Below is a collage of designs I plan to cover in the class. Along the top of each page I wrote the name of the design, the batting type and page number from the book I will be using for the class. In case you are interested, I'm using the book Free Motion Quilting with Angela Waters. It has become my go-to book for quilting ideas as of late.
Check out these quick and versatile walking foot quilting designs that even beginner quilters can master! The walking foot is a powerful attachment for your domestic sewing machine that make it possible for you to beautifully quilt your own modern quilts!
Melody Crust talks on her blog about the importance of selecting the right quilting pattern to make the most impact on your quilt top. Calling straight line quilting elegant, click HERE to learn mo…
Fear of not liking your quilting plan often contributes to large WIP piles. Continue reading for 5 ways to not over-do FMQ on your next quilt
If you are new to free motion quilting, you will most likely encounter some of these free motion quilting problems listed here. Hopefully, this guide will benefit you, allowing you to enjoy the mos…
Custom Quilting is determined by how complex and dense the quilting is. I hope that these photos and descriptions can help you to determin...
If you are new to free motion quilting, you will most likely encounter some of these free motion quilting problems listed here. Hopefully, this guide will benefit you, allowing you to enjoy the mos…
When I was first branching out into all over free-motion patterns after (kind-of) getting a hang of meandering, this design clicked for m...
For all of us machine quilters who are looking for some new ideas for quilting designs, this is a wonderful new book by Cindy Seitz-Krug, an award winning quilter and teacher who uses her home machine for quilting, published by AQS. What is great about this book and a bit different is how effortlessly the "workbook" idea leads you through all kinds of lovely designs, shows you how to break them down into simple do-able elements that are controlled by a marked grid. Sometimes in the end you see the grid, others times only curvy lines and designs that make the viewer ask "how in the world was that done???" Below, details of Cindy's quilting: The designs are great, but all the options she shows us with size, color of thread, scale of design, where and how to use them really help when trying to figure out what design to use where in a quilt. There are tons of illustrations, diagrams, quilted samples to help you achieve these designs. The workbook idea insures you will be able to start at the beginning, follow along, and get a quilted design by yourself! One of the first grid designs I tried years ago when I was looking for a simpler method for a design of overlapping circles was one I called "Diane-shiko" (below) as it was a new way to mark and quilt an old Sashiko design. When the marked lines are removed the circles emerge so it looks as if you quilted circles. This is the basic idea Cindy uses to create all sorts of designs with the grid to guide you. Above you can see the 1/2" marked grid, and the stitching around the lines to form this timeless design. Below, the design used in one of my quilts, "Shadows of Umbria," which Cindy also has featured in her new book. A grid design will showcase curvy designs with its formality and regularity. These designs look difficult but many are absolutely beginner level and with some practice you'll be adding many of Cindy's designs, methods, ideas to your own quilts. Visit Cindy at her website and blog to find out more: www.quintessentialquilting.com Below, one more peek at her quilting: If you were in some of my last classes I taught a design called "Ginkgo." In Cindy's quilt above she uses it as fill around larger scale designs. Below is one of my samples of this lovely design, and Cindy includes a much easier way to mark and quilt it called "Twisted Ginkgo" in this new book. It's one of my favorite designs ever in the way it looks, and how much fun it is to quilt. I experimented and tried Cindy's method to quilt this design, and it worked perfectly. I'm thrilled she could explain it so well, and the diagrams and photos are exactly what you need so you too can add this design to your skills. Congratulations to Cindy on a great book and for her recent award at Road to California for Excellence in Machine Quilting for her wholecloth quilt "Blush." Hope winter is giving you lots of time to quilt, and to play with ideas on your sewing machine. Keep quilting! Your work gets better every day! Diane
Continue reading for 5 meander practice exercises that will help you learn to put FMQ skills on autopilot so you can focus more on quilting.
Quilting with a sewing machine isn't an impossible task since quilting and sewing machines are mostly similar. The truth is, they are both sewing machines.
Tour the gallery of free motion quilting designs created by Leah Day for quilting on your home machine.
Experiment with ‘wavy’ rulers to add movement, dimension to quilts...
Learn how to quilt the Hooked Feather Filler Design in this longarm quilting video tutorial from Angela Huffman and APQS longarm machines.
Since I have begun hand quilting my first WIP finish for 2015, I thought it would be appropriate to post some vintage quilting designs. These were published in late 1930s newspapers by Florence LaGanke, using the Nancy Page pseudonym. Unlike the Nancy Page series quilts which were free patterns appe
If you are new to free motion quilting, you will most likely encounter some of these free motion quilting problems listed here. Hopefully, this guide will benefit you, allowing you to enjoy the mos…
Day Two of our Free Motion Quilting Series shows how to practice Waves.
It's late Friday night, but I didn't want the day to slip by without sharing a new quilting design this week. Here's a super simple, funky design called Voodle!This easy machine quilting design is a basic change-up of Paisley. Just add a circle in the end of the tear drop and you get a new
Sometimes jumping into free motion quilting needs a baby step, and grid quilting is just the thing to do it! Create structured free motion quilting using these 9 grid quilting ideas to dip your toes in and get started!
I've had the chance to review the book Free Motion Quilting for Beginners (and those who think they can't), by Molly Hanson. I love that title! I'm a big proponent of quilting your own quilts, as you know, and I've read a lot of books about free motion quilting. I like how everyone presents the information in their own personal way....there is always more to learn! This book presents all the practical information you need to get started. More importantly, it gives you the confidence to jump in and give free motion quilting a try. There are 15 projects in the book that encourage you to start small and increase your comfort level with free motion quilting before you tackle something larger, like a quilt. What I love most about this book is Molly's tone of encouragement throughout the text and the projects. She is great at guiding you though the entire process! I've done a lot of free motion quilting and I love how relaxing it can be. I also know how easy it can be to get in a rut. I challenged myself to get out of my box, so to speak and try some new-to-me, designs. I gave this squared off stippling pattern a try and it went pretty well! I had to slow down and think about where I was going from time to time, but it was fun! I could see doing this all over a whole quilt. I also quilted a few swatches of different designs and I turned them into a set of coasters. Binding them was a little fiddly, but totally worth it! (I can say that now that they are done. Ha!) These are great because I not only used scraps of fabric, but scraps of batting as well. Hurray! I'm happy to count these as scrap project #94/101. If you would like the chance to win an e-book copy of Free Motion Quilting for Beginners, please leave me a comment in this post. In your comment, I'd love to hear what your favorite go-to FMQ pattern is. Or, if you are new to FMQ, I'd like to hear what pattern you would like to master. I will pick winner in a few days!
