tlrnhi

OF course you can! You don't need the new-fangled ones. Heck, if I can do it, you can too!!

MollieSue

Thanks Mary, Gcathie, Sue, & Terrie! I've never seen it done, or known anyone personally who does it, so it still seems kind of hard to imagine.
And patience is not one of my virtues, so I'm going to have to think of the practice as another project....
Thank you all again! :D

carrieg

Diana
Try YouTube! (I can't because I have dialup internet.) But I know there are tutorials for quilting there. I think if you do a search, you might find a few.

MollieSue

Thanks Carrieg, I'll look there too! I just found this site, and wanted to post it for anyone else wondering.

http://www.ask.com/bar?q=how+to+free...-tutorial.html

I don't have a darning foot, and this link says it goes up and down with the needle? So that's a must have, I can't just use my regular foot?

kluedesigns

i agree, you can quilt on a regular sewing machine. many world famous quilt artists do it such as caryl bryer fallert and paula nadlestern.

if you're going to do free motion you'll drop the feed dogs and use a darning foot or if you have a foot that you use to do embroidery on the machine you can use that.

you can either buy stencils and mark your quilt with the design and follow along or you can mark the design onto paper and pin that to the quilt and follow along on those lines.

there's a company called quilting made easy that sells designs already on paper and you just attach it to your quilt.

Rose Marie

When starting out the best practice is to only do free motion on the borders. No bulk under the arm of the machine.
Simple stencils like hearts or leaves that are continuous line work the best.
The inside of the quilt just use the walking food for a grid pattern.
This has worked for me and now I am ready to do free motion on the whole quilt but I admit I bought a machine with a 10 inch throat.
What a difference it has made.

littlehud

I started out quilting on my regular machine. Just doing free motion on the borders worked OK. I have since invested in a Juki machine with a nine inch throat. Freed me up to try free motion on the whole quilt. My machine was 599.00. Seemed like a lot at the time, but when I look at the price of other machines it not to bad. Had to save for a while, but it was worth the price. I know I've gotten more than 599 in fun out of it.

sidmona

I use a Juki also and have free motion quilted a king size quilt on it. I use the stencils and the paper. Like the others say, it just takes practice.

MollieSue

Thank you Klue, Rose Marie, Littlehud, and Sidmona!!
My machine came with the little plate that covers the feed dogs, I just need to get the darning foot. I did just get a quilting foot.
I've read the posts about quilting patterns, just never really thought about it all the way through. duh. lol!!!
You all really are such an inspiration!!!! :-) :-)

sandpat

I've quilted all my quilts (both large and small) on my regular home sewing machine..either a very old Singer or my newer Bernina. If you checked the Bats in the Attic website, you have seen Paula's work....she quilts ONLY with her Bernina. I've taken 2 classes from her and she swears that SHE sees NO reason to buy a long arm. Now...that is just her opinion, however..my quilts have all looked just fine and I don't have room for a long or mid arm, so....there's no choice to be made for me.

You CAN do the same and/or even more beautiful quilting...all you have to do is try and practice! :lol: