Beginning Free Motion Quilting on Home Machine

This class was formed to give extra time needed to learn free motion quilting to finish a project in the panel class or as a class for anyone wanting to learn free motion quilting.

Students will learn to make quilting designs with their home machine:

• Free motion swirls, circles, wavy lines, flowers, feathers (stitch regulator optional)
• A walking foot helps to make straight lines and the embroidery foot is used to make free motion designs
• Practice is done on small quilt squares
• Resources given: on line instructors, tutorials and books

Materials List:

Four squares of solid fabric about 24 x 24 each

Two squares of solid fabric about 20 x 20 each and two squares of large print fabric about 20 x 20 each

Four squares of batting about 22 x 22 each

Thread (invisible thread and 50 wt thread)

Machine ……Stitch regulator optional

Cutting mat, ruler, rotary cutter, scissors

Spray Adhesive, Sizing liquid (Best Press)

Paper and pencil to practice designs

Prepare quilt squares:

• Spray fabric with sizing (Best Press) and iron flat
• Spray backing fabric with spray adhesive, place batting on top of backing
• Spray batting with spray adhesive, place quilt top on top of batting
• Iron front and back
• Stitch around perimeter of square and baste stitch across square at 4 inch intervals

Quilting on solid fabric square:

• Draw large simple shape in center of solid fabric square
• Make a plan for quilting by sketching simple design
• Practice free motion designs on paper first (swirls, circles, wavy lines, flowers, feathers, line/circle combo, outlining

Quilting on large print square:

• Use invisible thread (test thread tension on side of scrap area) and outline large shapes on fabric
• Change to 50 weight thread to do background fill

Quilting:

• Use walking foot for straight lines and embroidery foot for free motion quilting
• Test thread tension on scrap fabric over edge of batting on one side of square
• Pull up bobbin thread and hold while making locking stitch
• Stitch around drawn shape in center then complete background fill
• Straight stitch with walking foot or regular foot: Can mark lines to follow
• Free Motion: Place both hands flat on fabric and stitch only in area between hands. Can use stitch regulator to make all stitches the same length.