The Sewing Place
The Emporia => Patchwork & Quilting ... Welcome to the Darkside => Topic started by: Vezelay on April 05, 2018, 13:01:16 PM
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I'm a garment sewer who's also made bags and other small quilted craft projects but only ever done straight line quilting stitching. Now I'm going to make a cot quilt for my great-nephew in Brisbane (I'll wait 'til he's born to send it!). I'm keeping it dead simple and using a gorgeous quilt panel I bought from Etsy - just that, cotton batting, backing fabric and binding. I can do all that. But I thought it would look better quilted with free motion swirls. I have the right foot, the right thread, extension table etc but I'm nervous about messing it up. I've had a practice which proved to me that it's not as easy as it looks! I'm wondering if I should I draw the swirly pattern on first (then iron it off). The trickiest bit to me seems keeping the stitch length uniform. Any tips, tricks or suggestions would be warmly welcomed.
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I agree, make yourself a few layered bits and practice. Hoop it if you can and try to think where you want the fabric to be well ahead of time! Obvious but try to move the fabric at the same speed as the needle goes up and down. It'll be great whatever you do. Look forward to seeing it.
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Practice - PRACTICE - PRACTICE and more PRACTICE
That's the only way to get to grips with quilting.
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I hear you all - practice it is :). Am I OK practising on a single layer of fabric like an old cotton sheet? I watched a tutorial which said to practice on a batting sandwich and that put me off. Batting of any kind is too expensive to waste over here!
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Practice on a sandwich .....
it doesn't have to be posh wadding/batting
Use an old fleece cut up, a cheap fleece throw from Ikea/Dunelm etc
or off-cuts of wadding from previous quilts (I always keep mine to test stitch length, colour etc)
before I quilt a project but you do need the layers.
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OK, got it, thanks. :)
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When I've done practice sandwiches I often divide the area into columns or quarters without rotating (not irritating) the sandwich by doing free motion straight lines. That gets you used to going in different directions. I find my stitches are most even when I go backwards, I find right to left most difficult. I then fill in the sections with a couple of repeated patterns.
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"without irritating the sandwich"
Bwahaha!!! :D
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I thought that must be a standard quilting term. :S
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Flippin' autocorrect strikes again - it should say rotating!
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@Ploshkin I liked the first one better. It said exactly what you meant. :)
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I agree with everyone, particularly about the strife you can get yourself into when trying to follow a drawn line. Oh my that can lead you down a very stressed and wonky path indeed! There is no substitute for repetitive practice.....(sort of like what I did when I was trying to learn Led Zeps "Stairway to Heaven" on my harp....in my harp playing days that is.)..but there comes a time when you have to just jump in and do it on the real thing so that you get practice doing it on large wadges of stuff (technical terms here) as manouevering all that fabric/bulk along with concentrating on what your needle is doing adds a whole new dimension to the craft.
A BIG thing to remember is that a mistake gets lost and is often unnoticeable once you have finished the whole project.
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A BIG thing to remember is that a mistake gets lost and is often unnoticeable once you have finished the whole project.
That's a good one to know :)
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Oh yes .. as wise old quiltresses have said for eons .... If you can't see it from 10 yards away on a galloping horse its not a mistake!
Theres also the 'design feature' option too.