Showing posts with label free motion quilting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label free motion quilting. Show all posts

Friday, July 1, 2016

Another Quilt Finish and a Useful FMQ Tip


Here's another wall quilt (33" x 39") that I made to practice free-motion quilting skills.


Here's a fmq tip for you: Leave the feed-dogs up and set the stitch length to "0."
It seems wrong but I tried it both ways and this is better! It's a big help. 




Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Box Wall Quilt with Hidden Apples



My latest finish! I made this quilt top for the purpose of practicing my free-motion quilting, and I'm surprised that I really like it. You can see the quilting better in the close-ups below.
See more photos of this quilt here.


I bought some Fons and Porter quilting gloves at JoAnn. They're supposed to be rubbery so that moving the quilt under the needle is easier. But these gloves aren't very rubbery at all, so I don't recommend them. I ordered some Machingers online from Leah Day. Her online videos of fmq designs are wonderful (and numerous!). 


Red apples appear in only one block. 

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Free-Motion Quilting Blog by Leah Day!

If you've seen my quilts, you know that I really put my heart into the piecing. But when it comes to the quilting, I just want to get the job done without ruining a good top. So I use my Juki 98Q to sew parallel wavy lines across the quilt. I'm afraid that if I tried to make them straight, some would be wavy. So I just go with wavy right off the bat. If I plan to enter the quilt in a show, I make the wavy lines closer to each other. That's my idea of heavy quilting.

But look at these awesome free-motion filler designs by machine quilting genius Leah Day! She has challenged herself to come up with a new pattern every day! And you can watch videos about how to do them. Her website is Day Style Designs. See 365 different patterns like the ones shown in this post: The Free Motion Quilting Project. For the latest on what Leah is up to, visit her blog. She has an excellent post on buying sewing machines too.

I think discovering Leah's work will have a big influence on my quilting life by enhancing the appearance of my quilts and adding more fun to the process of making them. Wowzers!

The pattern designs are called "Fossil Bed," "Little Hands and Fingers," "Space Star," "Spaghetti and Meatballs," and "Elodea" (listed from top photo to bottom).

I've seen gorgeous machinie quilting before, but the difference here is that I think I can actually do these! I'll let you know how I make out. Thanks to Liz Broussard who made the brown selvage quilt (that was featured here a few days ago) for telling me about Leah. I love how inspiration spreads through cyberspace!