July 05, 2010

Free motion quilting revisted

I really enjoy free motion quilting.  It is not as hard as you might think.

I've taught four people to free motion quilt so far. Three of them took it and ran with it and I love seeing their quilting, I think it's better than mine. The fourth was my grandma and she decided she would rather just let someone else quilt her quilts so she could focus on the part she likes best: piecing. Can't argue with that.

I originally learned to free motion quilt from Kathy Sandbach, who has a book about free motion quilting. It was a two-morning workshop at the Northwest Quilting Expo. Kathy does not have a long arm quilting machine so I thought she was the perfect person to teach me to quilt on my home machine.

Things get a little tight when you get into the middle of the quilt but it is doable!

This project brought me face to face with some tension problems with the Bernina. I can't explain why the thread would be in tension, then suddenly out, then back in again. I had to rip out more stitches than I would have liked.  Do you see that below? Maddening.

I would simply assume that it needs servicing, but it was just serviced less than two years ago and I've only quilted two and a half quilts since then. If I have to spend $90 servicing this machine every two quilts that is going to make me bonkers.

Makes me fantasize about a new quilting machine.

Anyway, I feel very passionately about free motion quilting. I'm good at it, and I've had good luck teaching it to others. I decided while quilting this quilt that I would like to teach a free motion class in the future. So that's a personal goal I set for myself to make happen in the next two years. Having said that, please ponder why this octopus is wearing eyeglasses. Ah....they can't all be winners.

5 comments:

Linda said...

I think he's just checking out the rest of your quilting! Which looks absolutely great so he should have a smile as well! Lurking Linda

~Melinda said...

What beautiful quilting!! I am a newbie, and only have a simple sewing machine (that my dear children bought me for Mother's Day this year!) but I'm already eye-balling more advanced machines. :) I can only hope to be as good as you at machine quilting one day!

nocton4 said...

amazing, you are not just good but great at it, wonderful xx

Megan said...

Obviously, the octopus is studying your wonderful work! Please keep us all posted when you offer a class/workshop. I'd love to come learn!

Unknown said...

Hum....maybe you could do a trial class at a meeting???
I love the octopus!

Post a Comment

I love reading your comments, thank you for coming by!