If I Can Do Free Motion Quilting, You Can Too!

I've been "going big" (as Elizabeth would say) with free motion quilting the last week or so, experimenting in earnest.  It's time to talk about what I've learned.  I'm hoping I can encourage other free motion newbies to get beyond the intimidation.

1.  Have the right machine for the job.  While quilters do free motion quilting on all kinds of sewing machines from standard home models to longarms, I wasn't able to be successful on my standard sewing machine.  Last year, I attempted free motion quilting on my trusty little Kenmore.  While it is work to shove a big quilt through a standard harp, it can be done.  The issue that made it impossible for me to succeed on the Kenmore is the fact that the Kenmore just wouldn't go slow enough.  If I slowed down enough where I could I manage, the Kenmore stalled.

For me that meant an upgrade to a Juki TL98Q, which is considered a mid-arm.  While the Juki will do 1500 stitches per minute, it will also crawl.  Very good for a free motion quilting newbie.  I realize a lot of FMQ videos show the quilters zipping through the motions at high speed.  This is not appropriate for newbies.  To me, that's like a new driver starting out learning  to drive on the freeway.  Being able to go slow while you build control and confidence is a must in my opinion.  Just to be clear, I'm not dissing standard machines.  If your standard machine can do the job, that's great.  I'm just saying my standard machine wasn't up to the job.

2.  Feathers are the most forgiving FMQ design that you can do after stippling.

You probably don't believe me. If someone had said that to me before I tried feathers, I would have thought she was nuts. Surely a design so beautiful and intricate has to be hard. Nope! Not if you use the Hooked on Feathers technique. Besides the fact that the technique is simple and straightforward, there are other considerations that make these feathers a very forgiving design: 1. They do not have to be perfectly symmetrical to look good; 2. They do not have to be uniform in size to look good; 3. The shape of the feather can vary from rather flat to rather round all in the same design, and it still looks good.

Still don't believe me? Study these close up shots, and you'll see that my feathers are far from perfect.  The feathers are not always shaped exactly the same, are not perfectly symmetrical from one side to the next, and are not particularly uniform.

 Yet the overall effect is still pretty darn good.

3.  Symmetrical designs, even thought they don't appear as intricate as feathers, require more control and concentration than feathers.  Before I actually started experimenting, I thought the little motifs in the following block would be easier than the feathers.  Nope, they are more difficult, because a certain amount of uniformity and symmetry is necessary.

That said, they are still more forgiving than you might expect.  They don't have to be perfect to look all right.  If you click on the picture to see it bigger, you'll be able to see what I'm saying.

Now here is an irony for you.  I started out using thread that matched the fabric as well as I could, thinking that if I had a "craptastic" spot, it would be less likely to show.  That is true.  However, I found that I could see so much better if there was a contrast between the fabric and thread, and that made me less likely to have a craptastic spot.  I'm still debating which is the best way to go.

Another irony is that the focus fabric in this quilt--the pansy fabric--is one of the most difficult for me to quilt.  First off with its several bright colors, I can't see my thread in the pattern as I quilt.  Secondly, the curved lines of the flowers "interfere" with my visualization the curved lines of the motif.  Something weird happens in my brain, that I don't think would occur if the motif was composed of all straight lines.  However, since the thread doesn't show much on the pansy floral, the craptastic spots aren't at all noticeable, so I'll keep on plugging away.  It is getting easier.

I hope this post helps other FMQ newbies to feel a bit braver.  I think the crux of what I'm trying to say in this post, is that perfection is not a requirement.  You don't have to quilt like Wendy at Ivory Spring to achieve decent looking quilting.  And the thing of it is, if you don't get started, you never will quilt like Wendy.  Don't be afraid to take that first step.  Who knows maybe there is one among us who can eventually achieve that type perfection if only we give it a shot.

Okay, you more experienced Free Motion Quilters, any other observations that you can add?

First Foray Into FMQ Feathers

Two nights ago with the help of my mom (Thanks Mom!), I pin-basted the Pansy Sampler Quilt. The pin-basting wasn't quite as tedious as usual, because as I pinned, I kept studying the various blocks imagining how I would apply my new found FMQ knowledge obtained from the books, Free Motion Quilting Made Easy, and Hooked on Feathers, which I blogged about here. 

So last night, I shoved the Pansy Sampler into the Juki and mentally psyched myself up.  Yep, I felt totally dangerous!

I guess the psyching up worked, because I jumped in deep.  It wasn't my intention to start out with feathers, although I was most anxious to try them.  However, there is only one block with a black background in the sampler, and the Juki was already loaded up with black thread, and I had planned feathers for that block.....  I took it as a sign.

Here is where I started.  The feathers don't look quite as pretty as those in the book, but for my very first attempt, I'm not dissatisfied.

(Sorry the pictures look washed out, but I have a feeling the quilting might be hard to see without the flash.)

Then I moved to a larger section in the background.  My original intent had been to fill the space with ever larger feathers as I moved from the center outward, but after I got to a certain size, making the feathers seemed a bit more difficult.  I decided larger feathers would be a different skill for a different day, and so I brought the motif back in at the top.  So far, so good.



The only problem is that I wanted the background totally filled, so I made some feather "sprouts" off to each side



It took me about 45 minutes to do these two little sections, but I could tell it was getting easier the more I did it, so I suspect it will go faster as I get more practice.  The other consideration time-wise, is that I didn't have to do any marking at all to create these intricate looking feathers.  That is definitely time saved.  Frankly, even with hand-quilting, I've never done any quilting this intricate because I didn't want to take the time to mark the quilt.  (I think I could use the same principles for making feathers in hand-quilting too.) 

I've always loved making tops, but got bogged down at the quilting phase, because I wasn't able to create extravagant designs on the machine, and hand-quilting takes a very long time.  I have a feeling that is all about to change.  I am ecstatic.

Two Free Motion Quilting Book Reviews

When trying to learn a new skill, a totally sane person would at least buy a book or a CD on the subject, but not me. I have to muddle awhile on my own first. I need to get my hands into it, know what it feels like so that when I finally do buy that book or CD, the information will make more sense to me.

Having recently jumped into Free Motion Quilting while working on Matt's Quilt, I did indeed get familiar with a range of emotions and spastic moves associated with skill.

• Ack!  Don't let your mind wander
• Where the heck am I?
• This is really cool!
• I'm on a terrifying rollercoaster
• Why did my hands do that?!
• This is going to look like crap.
• How fun!
• What the heck am I doing?

In other words, my experience gravitated between horror and loving the possibilities.  So now, I finally decided to order some books on the subject of Free Motion Quilting.

The first book is Free Motion Quilting Made Easy by Eva Larkin.  I got a kick out of the "Made Easy" part of the title.  I had to see.

I'll admit that I was pleasantly surprised to find a lot of the information she provided did indeed make the process seem less daunting.  One of my problems when looking at a quilt is trying to decide how to even get started.  The quilt looks so big, the possibilities for design are wide open (if only my skills were good enough), and I just have no idea how to attack the problem.  This book addresses that issue.  While of course practice is still a must--there is no way around that--what this book does is provide a well-thought out strategy for making wonderful free motion quilting designs with little marking.  She advises breaking your quilting area down into sections no more than 4 1/2" square.  For a 12" block, this results in 9 sections within the block.  Within the 4 1/2" square sections, she shows how to use some very basic shapes--like ovals, triangles, diamonds--to make some very attractive and intricate looking designs.  When I was done perusing this book, I felt much calmer and as though I will be able to do free motion quilting successfully.



The second book is Hooked on Feathers by Sally Terry.  There were two reasons I got this book.  First, I love the look of feathers in quilting, so if there was a chance in the universe I could learn to do feathers, then I wanted to take it.  The second reason is that several quilters have recommended this book as an incredibly easy way to achieve beautiful looking feathered designs.  I'll admit that again I was skeptical.  Feathers that beautiful just couldn't be that easy.  And yet, the technique this talented quilter has developed does provide a way to make beautiful feathered motifs with little marking and much less work than traditional feathers.  When I read about her technique, I was confident I could master it.

Armed with the information, techniques, and tips from these two books, I'm going to start free motion quilting the Pansy Sampler Quilt.  It's not only going to be a sampler by block design, but also in quilting.  The 16 blocks in this quilt ought to provide me with ample opportunity to try out these various quilting techniques.  Unlike Matt's Quilt, this quilt is for me, and so any imperfections will be mine and mine alone.  I am poised with anticipation!

While today's blog doesn't show off any creative achievement, I am going to link up over at Amy's blog for Sew and Tell Friday.  I hope that these book reviews will be inspiring to other free motion quilting newbies like myself.  And since I will be sharing my free motion quilting adventures with my fellow bloggers on Sew and Tell Friday in the future, I wanted everyone to know where the adventure began. 

I'd better to get to pin basting the Pansy Sampler Quilt!