Please Give me your favorite tips for Free-Motion Quilting Success
#1
Super Member
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Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 3,730
Please Give me your favorite tips for Free-Motion Quilting Success
I will be teaching the July Program for our guild on Beginner Free-Motion quilting.
I have several books and magazine articles with tips and advice on how to be a successful free-motion quilter. I am putting together a handout for the class. If you have attended a class on free-motion or have any tried and true tips to pass along that have helped you with f-m quilting, I would love to share them with my guild. Thank you!
I have several books and magazine articles with tips and advice on how to be a successful free-motion quilter. I am putting together a handout for the class. If you have attended a class on free-motion or have any tried and true tips to pass along that have helped you with f-m quilting, I would love to share them with my guild. Thank you!
#3
#5
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Florida
Posts: 5,968
Definitely wear Grab a Roos, they are the purple gloves that fit like Isotoner gloves. They aren't loose cotton and have great control. The best advice I ever received for free motion is to listen to your machine. The thunk, thunk, thunk of the needle has a rhythm. Move your hands to the rhythm of the thunk, thunk, thunk. When the thunk is slow move slow and when the thunk is fast, slow down. Although thunk sounds like a mistake, it's the best description of the sound.
#8
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Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Western Wisconsin
Posts: 12,930
For those who develop sore shoulders and backs from quilting while sitting down, you might mention that standing up helps. When I quilted on my domestic machine, I placed it on my cutting table. I could FMQ two or three times as long without back/shoulder pain and stiffness later.
Another thing that helps, especially if your machine is not sunk flat into a large table or desk, is to create a large styrofoam "surround" for your machine. This is easy to cut from a slab of styrofoam insulation. Cover it with inexpensive plastic. This makes a lightweight, large, flat, slippery surface for your quilt to rest on while you move it around. I particularly liked using this when quilting standing up with my machine on my cutting table.
Another thing that helps, especially if your machine is not sunk flat into a large table or desk, is to create a large styrofoam "surround" for your machine. This is easy to cut from a slab of styrofoam insulation. Cover it with inexpensive plastic. This makes a lightweight, large, flat, slippery surface for your quilt to rest on while you move it around. I particularly liked using this when quilting standing up with my machine on my cutting table.
#9
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Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 41,539
Don't watch where you are stitching but instead look where you want to go. Set your machine on a lower speed if your machine allows it. I love my Machinger gloves. Meander or stipple are not beginner patterns. Try a loop de loop that allows you a spot to reposition your hands. I like to use plain white chalk for marking reference points so you may want to address marking methods.
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