Free Motion Quilt Along: Wiggles

(The drawing is now closed)
Welcome to the first quilting week of the Free Motion Quilt Along! First off, I am excited to tell you that C&T Publishing is providing a copy of Show Me How to Machine Quilt, by Kathy Sandbach, to one lucky blog reader. How perfect, thank you C&T! To be entered for the giveaway, simply leave a comment on this post. There must be an email address for me to contact so please include that if your profile does not allow people to access your email address.


I hope you are excited about quilting some wiggles! I decided to split up the quilting designs and quilt along instructions so the designs can serve as an easy reference for anyone, without a bunch of quilt along information confusing matters. So if you haven't already, please read the post on wiggle designs.

Now, we are going to be quilting wiggles in two of the skinny strips on the quilt. How about the middle two?  Just roll your quilt up to one of the strips, and slide the roll under the arm of your sewing machine.

You get to choose whatever designs appeal to you. Choose according to your interest and skill level! Now, before you rush (wiggle?) off, I do think you should open up your quilt journal and sketch any of those wiggle designs that you liked. Then you will have them to inspire you for future projects. And take some time to think about other wiggle designs. Sketch those as well. Then choose four to six designs you would like to try. Not all of them will be appropriate for a one inch wide strip, so take that into account.

I must tell you that I am a ponderer. I can get stuck mulling over the silliest details. If you are also a ponderer, know that the designs you choose are not important. Practicing quilting is important. So if you find yourself getting stuck on deciding what to quilt, just quilt the designs I quilted, OK?  Before starting, try a few wiggles on your practice pad to get in your groove (and to double check that the tension pixies haven't visited).

Here we go. I first did a basic serpentine wiggle for 1/3 of the strip.

Then I increased the frequency of the wave. This might be UVA. Got your sunscreen?

Then I decreased the frequency. Maybe a bit too much. It was looking like a pretty sickly wiggle so I just threw in a tiny leaf here and there. Force of habit.

On to the second strip. I tried the ribbon candy design. Took a little bit to get the feel for it but I really like this one!

Then I did the basic serpentine down to the bottom of the strip. At the bottom I turned around and did the mirror/DNA wiggle, until I reached the 1/3 point. The challenge with this design is to NOT stare at the needle. If you stare at the needle you will make all your turns too late and it will not be symmetrical (although, if you were really aiming to draw DNA you will have totally nailed it). You need to look ahead of the needle, where you're going (like driving!). If you are at the outermost part of the curve you should have your eyes on the point you want to intersect the first wiggle. If you are at the intersection you should be looking ahead to where you want the outermost part of the next bump to land. This is a general principle of free motion quilting so take this solemn vow: I will not stare at my needle.

Finally, I tried the ribbon effect. I like the way this looks - it is hard to mess this one up!

A few words about working with your quilt for the first time. Try and keep it from hanging off the edge of your table. Pile it on the table or in your lap so you're not battling the weight of the quilt while you move the quilt sandwich. Stop every now and then and make sure it's not starting to bind around the corner of your machine or table.

Also, I quilted my lines with the one inch strip oriented vertically in the machine but if you want to quilt from side to side, go ahead. Just roll up your quilt from the right side, slip it under the machine arm and start quilting on the left edge. As you work your way to the right you will be slowly unrolling the quilt as you go. This is just a matter of preference. Up and down or side to side, no one will be able to tell once your quilt is off the machine.

And finally, for some of you this quilt along is the right pace and for some it is painfully slow (I can tell, even though you are being very polite). So, hey, you don't have to wait for me! I would love nothing more than for you to have the confidence to disregard everything I say and just quilt what you want to quilt. That is what will really make you a better quilter: practice. So if you want to quilt more than what I tell you, or try designs before we get to them in the quilt along, you absolutely should. Don't wait around for me to bore you to tears.

So, go ahead, have fun; no stress, it's just quilting! Don't forget about the Flickr group for sharing successes or struggles. 

Free Motion Quilting Designs: Wiggles

Today starts weekly installments on different families of free motions quilting designs, and their variations. While I would like to have stitched examples to show you, for now sketches from my journal are as much as I can provide.

Wiggles, or wavy lines, are a great place to start free motion quilting! They are quick and simple. By wiggles, I mean smooth, undulating lines that do not cross their own path. What I consider to be the "basic wiggle" is shown on the left. Simply changing the "frequency" of the waves gives a lot of different looks.

Changing the shape of the wiggles gives you interesting effects. The one on the left reminds me of ribbon candy.

When a single wiggle isn't quite right? Stitching another wiggle over the first, intersecting occasionally creates a ribbon effect. Simply stitching another wiggle next to the first can make a wiggle look more refined.

If you mirror image a wiggle, you get a "DNA" effect, as my friend Sandra says. Multiple different wiggles placed together can have an interesting, dynamic look.

There are lots of ways to change the shape of wiggles.

Even if you only ever quilt wiggles you can do some beautiful quilting! Here are a few examples I found. 

1. IMG_1286_2, 2. I'm also lovin' wavy lines!!, 3. Oven glove, 4. Wavy Lines Part II, 5. Snail's Trail for DQS5, 6. boat quilt, 7. Wavy lines: my new favorite quilting, 8. Jena's quilt, 9. Midnight - Patchwork Quilted Table Runner

Wiggles are also the basis of the popular "meandering" quilting design but we will give meandering special treatment in a few weeks. I'm sure there are wiggle designs I haven't thought of. You should sit down and doodle some wiggles right now!  Drawing a design before stitching it is great practice to get your brain used to the motions. Sketching is an easy way to improve your quilting.

See more Free Motion Quilting designs and tips on the Free Motion Quilting page.

When your thread breaks or runs out

Because some of you asked, and because I don't want you left hanging when I post the first quilting instructions on Friday: 

1. Insert your swear word of choice

 2. Trim up the loose threads

3. Start over as if you were just beginning, by pulling up the bobbin thread and locking your stitches, inserting the first stitch a couple stitches before the break.

4. Stitch over the last few stitches and then back, to lock your stitches as usual.

Hopefully it blends in!

I wanted to say thank you so much for all the thoughtful responses to yesterday's post. I am glad this story touched you. This is very meaningful for me. I would like to respond individually but life is kind of walloping us over here this week so I'm stepping away from the computer to see if I can rustle up any more tissues or Sudafed. Be well!

A story without pictures

I learned to free motion quilt at the very beginning of my quilting journey, seven or so years ago. I had completed three quilt tops but didn't know where to go from there. I had seen lovely long arm quilting on some of my grandma's quilts and by comparison straight lines with a walking foot just didn't seem right.

I happened upon a free motion quilting class to be held at the Northwest Quilt Expo and scraped together the money to attend. I brought my clunky cheapo sewing machine. It sounded so loud compared to the nicely tuned machines the other ladies brought! I felt very self conscious. I felt like an outsider.

For two mornings a woman named Kathy Sandbach taught our small group of quilters to free motion quilt. Kathy was very energetic and supportive. She acted as though we could do it, and I believed her. She treated me the same as all the other, more experienced attendees and I stopped feeling so self conscious. Kathy was a professional quilter, and quilted all her quilts on a domestic machine, not a longarm, which was very reassuring. I will always be grateful that I was in the right place at the right time to learn from her. I'm glad I didn't have time to doubt myself or think that free motion quilting was only for experienced quilters with longarm machines. There is a fearlessness to the "beginner mind". The belief that all things are possible is very powerful. I jumped right in.

“The thing is to become a master and in your old age acquire the courage to do what children did when they knew nothing"

--Henry Miller

When I have taught friends to quilt, I've given them a quick hands on lesson and left them with Kathy's book. They have all done marvelously and I think that has more to do with her than me. When I decided to offer the free motion quilt along I went to look Kathy up, and see whether she would mind if I used some of the same exercises she did to teach the basics. I was feeling a little sheepish. What business do I have teaching anyone to quilt? Then I found her website, and on it, a letter from her children dated last year, explaining that Kathy had been diagnosed with a rare type of dementia, and that she is now in long term care. She is no longer quilting. She is no longer teaching.

The impact of this news on me was profound.  Who can explain such a cascade of emotions? It stung to imagine this vibrant, confident woman toppled from within, and so much younger than anyone could expect. It emphasized my own physical vulnerability as well.  And in a moment I went from feeling like an interloper, to feeling that I had a tremendous gift that must be shared.

Much of what I have to share about free motion quilting I learned from Kathy. She taught me these things, and I would like to pass them on, so they do not die, but instead continue on through the world. So they can grow, and change, and bring joy.  If you are learning free motion quilting from me, I hope you will consider Kathy to be your "grandma" quilter. Kathy would tell you "you can do it!" and you can.

Free Motion Quilting Basics: Practice Stitching

If you are already experienced with free motion quilting you may not need this step. Your choice! We're going to get a feel for free motion stitching, and work out any initial problems you encounter. So, get out your practice pad (a quilt sandwich to practice on, I recommend 12 by 18 inches).

Draw four vertical lines about 2" apart on the right side. I used a regular pencil.

Wind up some bobbins.

If your sewing space looks like this, clear it off. Free motion quilting will vibrate all that crap right off the table anyway.

Now cozy on up to your sewing machine.

If you have an extension table for your machine, put that on. (If you don't, we'll talk about that soon.)

That's better.

Quick check:
Feed dogs down/covered?
Stitch length set to 0?
Darning foot on?
Sharp needle?
Good thread?

Great.

Let's make sure you've read this post or watched the video.

Now let's get you used to moving your quilt sandwich! We'll start by stitching those lines you drew. It doesn't have to be perfect. If you don't end up right on the line, or if your lines are crooked or wobbly that's fine. I want you to get the feel for stopping and starting, and I want you to start trying for the right number of stitches per inch. Start at the top of the line closest to the edge, by locking your stitches. Put your hands in the "U" shape, and start stitching down the line while pushing the quilt away from you. When you get close to your thumbs, stop, reposition your hands, and continue stitching. Do this to the end of the line. Lock your stitches, cut your threads, and go back to the top to stitch the second line. And then the third. And the fourth. I know, your lines aren't straight. Mine either.

Now let's take your quilt off the machine and see if there's any glaring issues that need to be fixed. Are there loose loops of your top thread on the bottom? If so, you probably need to increase the tension on your top thread by a number or two (most people do need to increase their top tension for free motion quilting). The picture below shows the bottom side when I stitched with the top tension too low.

Next we're going to fill in the spaces between the lines. In the first column, between the first and second lines, stitch a bunch of straight-ish lines. You don't need to lock your stitches at the end of every line now, you're probably getting the hang of that. Instead, when you reach the end of the line, take a couple stitches to the side, and then stitch back up the quilt sandwich, pulling the quilt toward you. I know, it's weird, you can't totally see where you're going. Try it anyway. Keep going, down and up, until you've filled up that column.

Take the quilt sandwich off again. How's the tension looking? Fiddle with it if you need to.

In the next column, try stitching a bunch of zig zags, by moving your quilt side to side while you stitch. The quilt doesn't need to be turned or angled, your hands do all the work of guiding it where you want it to go. You are drawing by moving the "paper" instead of the "pen".

In the last column make a bunch of loops. They don't have to be pretty!

Check out the tension again. Sometimes things look fine with straight lines but then get loopy at the apex of a loop or the point of a zig zag. Fiddle some more if you need to. We don't want any loose loops on the back.

The rest of the blank area is for trying whatever you'd like and getting more practice moving the quilt and stitching at the same time.

Remember: It's not uncommon to have troubles at this step. Maybe you keep getting loopy threads on the bottom, or your thread keeps breaking. Initial troubleshooting includes rethreading (make sure the foot is up when you thread), trying a different thread, and trying a different needle. Make sure your machine is clean and lint free, and that you remembered to put the darning foot down when you stitch (I screw this up occasionally!). 


If you had to adjust your tension and you found one that works, note in your journal what number your top tension was on when it worked. If a specific thread or needle made a difference, make a note of that. This will be a good place to start the next time you sit down to quilt. Anytime you are stitching on a new machine or trying to do a basic test of the tension, I would try stitching some straight lines, some zig zags and some loops for a quick analysis.

Free Motion Quilting: Basics

I personally never watch videos on blogs because the only time I am online is while watching TV or while on the bus. Nevertheless, it occurred to me that you might want to see a video of the basics of free motion quilting. So my handsome husband lovingly held my iPhone after the baby was abed, and I did a down and dirty video of all the things I'm about to talk about below. Bonus: this is also my 100th blog post. I think that's some sort of good omen. So, here you go! If you're like me and don't want to watch this, I think I did a pretty good job explaining it below.



These are the steps I take when free motion quilting. You may do things differently, and if you're inclined to experiment with other approaches, go right ahead!

Pulling up the bobbin thread

Get your practice pad under your needle, wherever you plan to start stitching. Lower the foot. Using the handwheel, take a stitch into the fabric and bring the needle back up. Slide the pad out a bit and pull on the thread to "pop" the bobbin thread up where you can grab it. Pull out the thread until the free end comes through. Now line up the pad so that the needle is directly above where you took the first stitch.

Hold the threads gently behind the foot as you start stitching, to prevent them from turning into a snarled mess on the back of your quilt.

Locking your stitches
 We want your stitching to hold for the coming decades of use and washing. You need to do something to keep the loose ends of the threads from unraveling where you start and stop your stitching. Some people take a few stitches in place. I slowly take a few stitches away and then back again over the same stitches to really lock them down. This leaves a somewhat more noticeable area in the stitching, but I think it's worth it for what I think is a stronger "lock". I expect my quilts will be washed a lot.

You can do whatever you'd like to lock your stitches. You can even do the fancy quilt show maneuver where you tie the threads together and then bury them in the quilt using a needle. I detest extra steps so I have never tried this.

What to do with your hands
Some people grab their quilts. Some people grab with one hand and lay the other flat. I lay both my hands flat so they make a "U" shape. While stitching I press down on the quilt sandwich and slightly outwards, to eliminate any wrinkles in the area I am stitching. I stitch whatever I can in this"U" shaped area, then I stop and reposition my hands without letting the quilt shift. If your machine has a needle down feature, that is very helpful, the needle holds the quilt in place while you move your hands. My machines don't have this feature, and invariably, the needle stops up. So I either take one hand off and use the handwheel to lower the needle, or I move my hands one at a time. The quilt stays in place, lined up for me to stitch again. When you reposition your hands, remove any pins that are in the "U" shape where you will be quilting.

Stitching
I aim for 8-10 stitches an inch. When I first started, I took about 40 stitches an inch. Or 2. I broke at least one needle. If that's how you start out, don't worry. I was taught to err on the faster side with stitching speed and I do find that when I stitch faster my lines are smoother and my stitch length is more consistent.

Ok, so now that we've covered HOW you get started, tomorrow we'll work on WHAT to stitch - hope you have your practice pads ready!

Expert?

My field of expertise is this

and a bit of this

most days you can find me here

or here

If you have some sort of contraceptive quandary, I'm definitely your girl.

I'm not an expert at quilting though. I'm more like your crafty pal. Like, come over to my house and I'll shove a pile of half finished projects out of the way so we can stitch together and then eat some ice cream and watch Star Trek.

And because you're the kind of friend who's not even going to laugh at me for watching Star Trek, I'll tell you a secret. My quilting is far from perfect.

Sometimes I have tension issues

Sometimes my stitches get crazy long

Sometimes my meandering is all weird like

Sure, sometimes my stitches look great

But sometimes they look bad on the back

So I just wanted to get that off my chest. I make quilts to delight the people they are made for. I don't need my quilts to be perfect. I like to say "Done is better than perfect". And I wrote you a prescription, in case you need to use it on this quilt along:

(Apologies to the PMQG who already heard that joke). Alright, that feels better. Thanks for all the kind, encouraging comments you have left for me. I am delightedly planning the next steps for the quilt along. It's normal to be thinking about quilts all day right?