Welcome back to the penultimate post on the Machine Quilting Blog Hop! Next week we are wrapping this series up with an awesome giveaway! Martingale has generously provided each of the blog hoppers ( HollyAnne, Vicki, Jen, and me) a copy of The Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting to give away! All the details are at the end of this post.
This week, we tackled the chapter called Migration. The main focus for this chapter was all about breaking up the quilt into smaller pieces to make the quilting more manageable. That makes a lot of sense to me, so I created a patchwork sample with lots of small spaces to fill up with quilting.
None of the free motion quilting designs in this chapter were very hard–but the focus was really on more masculine designs. It’s good to have a few of those up your sleeve! It can’t all be hearts and flowers and swirls. First up was some square spirals. This was fun and easy and a perfect motif for a narrow border. It would definitely work on a masculine quilt–but it will be useful for all types of projects. I’m pleased with how much more consistent my stitches are becoming with practice.
Next up was just some organic wavy lines. Christa gives several variations on the wavy line motif to mix it up a bit–and I practiced them all. I’ve said it before, but this is such a fun, relaxing quilting design! No pressure of perfection! I think this version below is my favorite–wavy but not touching.
I’m gaining confidence as a machine quilter and this blog series and commitment to practice has really shown me that anybody can do it! I’ve heard from a lot of you saying that you want to improve at machine quilting but it just seems so intimidating. I hear you! But I encourage you to dive in! If you are like me and don’t have any spare quilt tops laying around, or are afraid of “ruining” a quilt–dig into your stash for fabric that you don’t love anymore, or buy some inexpensive solid or sale fabric and spend an evening making up some practice pieces. When you think you have enough–make some more. Repeat. It doesn’t take long to fill up these pieces!But totally worth it!
So, what are you waiting for?! Put on some good music, or a favorite podcast, slip on those quilting gloves and have some fun!
I’ve grown to love (or at least not hate) machine quilting enough that I signed up for longarm lessons! I’m so excited about it! Not only will I have the opportunity to learn to use a traditonal longarm, but also a sit-down longarm. This will be a grand experiment to find out if I really love longarm quilting. And who knows–maybe I’ll work my way through Angela’s side of the book next! Once I’ve done the 4-hour class I will be able to rent time on the longarm for $25/hour. Hopefully, this will enable me to quilt out a quilt in a few fun hours rather than wrestling a quilt through my machine a few hours a night for a couple weeks. We shall see.
Enter the giveaway! Here are the details: The winner will receive one copy of The Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting by Angela Walters and Christa Watson. If the winner resides in the United States or Canada, they will have their choice of a physical or digital copy of the book. If they reside outside the US and Canada, the winner will receive a digital copy. You can enter anytime between June 26, 2017-July 7, 2017.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
As always, we love to see your work if you are sewing along! Make sure to tag your post #machinequiltingbloghop over on Instagram.
In case you missed any of the Machine Quilting Blog Hop series:
And don’t forget to stop by to visit the other blog hoppers!
Jen at Quiltin’Jenny
Vicki at My Creative Corner3
HollyAnne at String and Story
Looks so fun – good guide to follow.
I love machine quilting. Just everything about it. Thank you.
Wow your quilting is great. I love practicing on placemats and pillows. Looks like an awesome book.
Wow, wish I’d started following this 7 or 8 weeks ago. But I just got the book and recently started following you on Instagram. Glad I clicked thru today.
Hi, Love FMQing! Just beginning to do some; this book looks so helpful! Thanks for sharing!
Silly me! I just checked – I didn’t buy the book! Why not!!! Wish I had when at the used book store.
Live the masculine quilting designs for any quilt. Yours look great and what a great giveaway!
I love that I can go from start to finish on my home machine with FMQ. thanks for the info!
Thank you for the great tips!
Quilting is not my favourite part but I’m determined to get better at it – I have a huge stack of UFOs waiting to be finished! Your book looks like it would be a helpful resource. Thanks for the chance to win itZ
I’m so inspired by your quilting!
I love the freedom of fmq but that’s also terrifying! Working on letting go and embracing the “mistakes” because the imperfections are usually beautiful.
Free motion quilting is my favorite. I am just not good at following lines or patterns, but I love other people’s quilting that can.
I am intimidated by the free motion aspect and need confidence to try new designs. Hopping this book will help. It’s been inspiring following the blog hop.
Yes, Using Gloves. I just cannot manage with out them. They are ingenious!
This has been so inspiring! You all may have given me the courage to jump! (I sure would like the book to keep me company!)
I LOVE FMQ! It lets me be creative and a bit wild, but still gives me boundaries so I don’t do anything too wild. Thanks for all the inspiration!
I find it difficult to be consistent with stitches and the pattern. But I continue to work on it.
FMQ looks a hoot-just have to practice, practice-so much fun-can’t wait until I get more confident with it!
I am on the loathe camp, but with all this inspiration and a will to practice for progress, I hope to turn my mindset around. Love those organic wavy lines.
these ladies are so talented and I need all the help I can get. I would love to win your giveaway.
Like you I am starting to enjoy machine quilting. I took this book out of the library and I think it is a really good one so it would be nice to win it …although I’ll likely buy it in the end. You are making great progress I can see.
I am slowly trying to do more machine quilting. I loved doing the random wavy lines recently!
I used to hate fmq but with practice, I enjoy this part as much as making the quilt…..in fact, I do look forward to it!
Never thought about some designs being more masculine than others. Now I’ll look at them with that in mind
I like those square spirals. Would love to have a copy of this book.
Thanks for all the encouragement to pratice, pratice, pratice!
Love those crossing over wavy lines, and I see practice is what I need to do. Commit to machine quilting practice everyday. Thanks for sharing.
Your quilt along was perfect for me and I already started to practice and practice. And the best thing: I plan to continue because I really like freemotion quilting and through your blog hop inspiration I now love it. Thank you for your encouragement. Greetings from Germany, Martina
Love FMQ! Hate wrestling the bulky quilt through my machine.
I love FMQ on my home machine but always need more practice. I’ve been eyeing this book for quite a while and would love to win it!
I want to learn to FMQ on my sewing maching…and learn that it’s not impossible!
Organic wavey lines are the most relaxing designs to quilt – who said FMQ was intimidating!
I have always dreamed of learning FMQ. I finally decided to jump into it after watch so many videos on YouTube. I’m still learning, but it would be so Awesome to win this book to help me in my FMQ journey.
I love being able to quickly quilt my own quilts, rather than paying someone to do it. When I started quilting, as a teenager, we pieced and quilted by hand. I’m happy to do it on a machine now : ) There are so many nice free motion designs also. Thank you for sharing your journey with us!
“Masculine designs.” Hah!
I like the square spirals and wavy lines.
I did custom FMQ on baby quilts, incorporating the child’s name in script, and information like birthdate and place. I’d like to get my quilting projects back in front of me and think this book would inspire me.
I’m looking for the FAQ designs that take less practice. I’ve been going crazy trying to master feathers. Time to take a step back and enjoy the process more
I’ve really enjoyed following you guys with this! Thanks for sharing 🙂
I’ve done a few practice pieces, but not a lot of FMQ for real. Still using the walking foot mostly. One of these days…
I’m with you about needing to practice every day, and really need to get back on the wagon lol!
I kind of enjoy FMQ when all the stars align. It is hard to get started: chosing the design, getting the momentum, the machine cooperating, people not interrupting you, no talent! You have to be in the right frame of mind for it to work.
I’m still at the reading and watching stage of FMQ, but this blog along has given me the courage to start practicing! At least, I have made some practice sandwiches!
I appreciated you sharing the tip about breaking up the quilt into smaller pieces. As a brand new quilter, it was very helpful!
I love quilting and have tried machine quilting but end up hand quilting my quilt. Talk about taking a long time.
I’m going to try this again and stay with it this time.
Thanks for all of your great tips.
Pam
I need a lot of practice but I love it.
So much fun to follow along with everyone. I really could use this book!