8 Free Motion Quilting Tips for Confident Beginners

It's said over and over again, practice is important when it comes to free motion quilting. This implies we make a bunch of practice pieces, but really, how long does it take before we're sick of making hot pads and place mats?

Then there's a project we just need to get done and fast. Perfect for a little machine quilting. Maybe it's that baby quilt that needs to be made this weekend. We know it doesn't have to be perfect so we decide we're moving on from those practice pieces.

So here's 8 tips to make those first free motion quilted projects look their best:

First, the set-up: Make sure you've got a set-up that will set you up for success. A smooth large workspace, preferably with your machine set into a table, cabinet, or large extension table. A chair at a comfortable height to your sewing surface. Quilting gloves or some other grip method. (See my How to Free Motion Quilt Series: The Set Up) Decent lighting, quality thread and a new needle will help get you off to a good start.

None of these battings are junk, but they are certainly thin. The top batting is my favorite 80/20 blend.

Batting: Use a medium thick batting. Nothing too poofy, but a little more room for less than perfect tension to hide within its thickness. A good quality medium thickness won't tend to flag up the needle or get poked down into the bobbin area if you don't have a straight stitch needle plate. My favorite batting is an 80/20 blend.

Thread: Choose a polyester thread of high quality. I know, I know, don't send me hate mail if you're a cotton purist. (Use some Aurifil if you can't stand the poly.) But a good 40 weight poly thread is probably the easiest thread to free motion quilt with. It's strong and smooth too, so it's less likely to break or fray.

Thread color: Use thread that matches or blends with the fabrics of the top. If you decide to use a variegated thread (and I don't recommend it, no matter how pretty it looks on the spool or how well it harmonizes with your top.), choose a quilting design without backtracking.

See how the variegated thread looks when back tracking? The top fabric here is black (despite it's appearance in this pic) and I used black thread in the bobbin.

Match your thread: Using matching top and bottom thread can hide minor tension issues. As a beginner, you will have tension issues that pop up in certain curves due to changes in hand motions or speed. Most quilters use the same color (or close to it) in the top and bobbin. If you decided to use a variegated thread on top, use a solid color in the bobbin that blends with the top, with the top thread, and the back.

See how much harder it is to see the quilting on the prints?

Backing: Having done all the above, use a backing that is a busy print or matches the thread used. You will see the texture the quilting provides, but not focus on individual lines of stitches. I still forget this tip all the time, tending to think, "what fabrics can I use up on this backing without using my best fabrics?"

A light solid backing with brightly colored thread will show off every bobble!

Relax: Take frequent breaks to keep from getting too tense. No one can quilt well when tense. The shoulders will sneak up to the ears and the back will curve forward. It's not good for your quilting and it's certainly not good for your body.

Finally, don't judge your quilting harshly while sitting at the machine. Take it out and spread it on a bed or a table and look with your eyes at 3 feet minimum from the project.

I hope you find these tips useful as you begin to quilt on your quilts. Don't forget to keep practicing on things that don't matter as much. This skill takes a lot of practice and there are so many variables to adjust on each project. With some care and the tips above you can go ahead and quilt your quilts before you are overrun with hot pads and place mats!

And don't worry, we all have those first quilts we tried our FMQ on before we really should have. They still warm the heart and build your skill.

Design....Squirrel!

I was so excited just two weeks ago to start a new design process. Then the fabrics I ordered didn't match my computer screen or the images I had in my head. I stalled out completely after redrawing the design twice.

Then.....

Squirrel!   (Pop culture phrase for totally distracted by the next bright and shiny thing.See the movie "UP")

I've had theses fabrics for quite some time and all of a sudden an idea popped into my head and off I go. To top it all off, the project is for a whole different deadline and goal.

That's a nice finish (even though it's actually a start!) for my holiday that was pretty much cancelled by a case of walking pneunonia in my firstborn. (He's on the mend.)

Happy Thanksgiving

A happy Thanksgiving to all of my free motion quiling peeps in the USA! If you are elsewhere, it never hurts to practice a little gratitude for all that we are blessed with every day. I know that I have found that even many of my trials work out to be something thankful for in some way.

Turns out that we will be rescheduling our Thanksgiving dinner since my oldest has come down with a nasty cough and fever. Poor kid. I figured it was just a matter of time until they came down with something since we put them into public school this year, and they've been so incredibly healthy so far. I am so thankful.

This also means I am not cooking turkey and several sides today, so I'm enjoying a restful day with my kids and husband. That's an extra something to be thankful for! I did however make pumpkin walnut whole wheat pancakes this morning. Yum!

For the rest of you, enjoy your turkey or have a great regular day, and know that I am thankful for all of you who read this blog, comment, and share with me.

(Affiliate links ahead)

Since the USA goes crazy with conspicuous consumption the day after Thanksgiving, there are a ton of sales going on over the next few days. For online shopping, you can get some great deals no matter where you live. Check out my sidebar for some specials (these are affiliate links that help support my blog).

The sale I'm most interested in is Craftsy's sale on classes. They are all $19.99 through Monday! I really enjoyed my class by Kimmy Brunner,Machine Quilting with Templates: Creating Design Perfection, especially since I could combine my quilting using rulers with her method. I'm not sure which classes I'm going to buy, but Machine Quilting Beautiful Borders has caught my interest. There are a ton of free motion quilting classes on Craftsy by a lot of talented quilters. I'm looking at other classes to help me do a better job serving customers at my Janome dealer's shop. I'm taking Big Embroidery With a Small Hoop, with Lisa Shaw for sure and maybe a class on using sergers.

There are also free classes there, which are especially good if you've never done one of their classes. It gives you a chance to check out their formats. They also have the QuiltCon Lecture Series 2013 for free.

I also want to mention that this is the time that the big box stores and online places tend to run 50% off sales on low end sewing machines. This could be a great deal IF you are prepared to think of these machines as disposable. We get a lot of these machines in the shop and their owners are very disappointed in these cheap machines and their lack of customer support. Many times they cost more to repair than they are worth.

If you or someone you know is considering one of these types of machines, remember to save your packaging and receipt so you can ship the machine back to the factory service center when you have issues. I would seriously consider who your local dealers and service persons are before choosing a machine and choose the brand or brands they carry.

Once again, I am sending out my thanks to you today!

Working With Text Part 1

The following tutorial will show how I use Microsoft Word to make patterns for words and text that I want to use in my free motion quilting projects. This is useful for many different crafting and sewing purposes. Please do not think I'm a tech-y genius, since I still get confused by a lot of this computer stuff. Also keep in mind that when it comes to computer programs there's usually more than one way to do the same thing and there's usually variations in versions of the software. I'm sure some of you may have other ways to do this or better programs, but this is a basic tutorial with basic/commonly available programs.

I am using Word 2013 which comes with my Office 365 subscription. This is the cloud-based version of MS Office. This should still be easily done in other versions of Word. Part 1 will show how to use the program to get your words to look how you want them. Part 2 will attempt to show how to print out even larger versions of this process, and I may do a final part on how to take the words from paper to fabric.

First open a new Word document. Type Enter the words you want. (Can we still call it typing?) Go ahead and increase the size of the font to something easier to see (anywhere from 80-100). Don't worry about orientation, final size, or word placement at this point. Highlight the text and click on the "Text Effects and Typography" button indicated by the orange arrow.

This drops down the following choices below:

Click the 'A' indicated by the orange arrow above. If using a different version, you're looking for something with an outline and white fill. This selection will give you a blue outline. We'll change that after the next step.

Since this choice will give the text a 'shadow', you want to click Shadow, then No Shadow as indicated by the arrows below. Right above the Shadow selection, it says Outline with a line of color under it. Click there to change the outline color to black for better visibility.

Now it's time for the fun of trying out fonts. There's a ton, and they don't all look great when made into large letters. The orange arrows indicate how to change the font from the drop down list. I chose Harrington for this example, which is a bit too fiddly for most fabric projects. Imagine cutting out that g!

Now it's time to fine tune the size and this gets less exact with my method. Part 2 will deal with how to print your words onto multiple pages (posterizing or tiling pages) since I haven't figured out how (or if I can) do it in Word. This will get the letters to the size you want them and in the word grouping you want. But I use different programs to do this with, hence Part 2.

The orange arrow below shows where you can change the size of the font. You can type enter in a number or click multiple times on the A with the upwards pointing triangle just to the right to increase the size. The smaller A with the downward pointing triangle will decrease the font size. Make sure you have the entire text selected by highlighting it all (click and drag).

Now's the time to change the page orientation to landscape if desired (this is under the page layout tab) and to center the text on the page. If the phrase doesn't need to be very large, it may all fit on one sheet of paper and all is well. If you want it to be larger, without having to posterize (part 2), print out the phrase at a smaller size but spaced and centered/justified in the layout you want. This sheet will serve as a placement guide.

Then enlarge the text (maximum size for this method is one full letter per page) to the desired size. Print the letters out and proceed with your project using the letters individually and using the smaller sized sheet of text as a placement guide.

Whew! That's enough for now. You can't imagine how many screen shots I took, how many times I re-sized them and then added arrows for this tutorial. I even had to tweak the layout of the blog so I could show enough of the screen shots at a readable size.

Please ask questions in the comments below and also let me know if the blog looks good on your screens. A shop customer mentioned visiting my blog the other day and said my blog must be pretty new since there wasn't much on it. I was floored. Maybe there are compatibility issues for those using smaller devices to view the blog? I have recently bought www(dot)freemotionquiltingadventures.com and it is totally blank at this point, but she would have said it was blank if she visited there.

By the way, there are some great online shopping deals to be had right now and through this week. Check my side bar for great deals.