Couching is Magic

After reading last week’s post, I know you are on the lookout for new techniques to elevate your quilting. One such technique that’s been gaining traction in recent years is couching. While traditionally associated with hand embroidery, couching has found a new home in the world of longarm machine quilting, offering quilters an exciting way to add texture, dimension, and visual interest to their creations. In this post, we’ll delve into the art of couching and explore how it can enhance your quilting projects.

What is couching?

It’s a technique where decorative threads, yarns, or ribbons are secured to the surface of the quilt top with stitching. On a longarm quilting machine, couching is achieved using a special foot.

The Handi Feet Couching Kit includes three sizes of interchangeable feet: 1.5mm (blue), 2mm (pink), and 3mm (yellow). With three sizes to choose from, you will always have just the right size foot for adding couched embellishments. You can add a variety of specialty threads, fibers, and yarns to your quilt. The feet are compatible with all HQ machines with the Interchangeable Foot Mount.

Once you have the foot mounted to your machine, thread your yarn or other embellishing fiber through the foot. Then quilt as you normally would. You will be quilting and embellishing all at the same time!

Benefits of Couching

Couching offers a multitude of benefits for longarm quilters, including:

1. Versatility: Couching allows us to incorporate a wide range of materials into our designs, from metallic threads and silk ribbons to wool or acrylic yarns and even fabric strips. This versatility opens up endless possibilities for creativity and experimentation.
2. Texture and Dimension: By layering different textures and materials onto the quilt surface, couching adds depth and dimension to the finished piece. We can use couching to highlight specific areas of our design or create tactile embellishments that beg to be touched.
3. Personalization: Couching lends itself well to personalization, allowing us to add custom touches and unique flourishes to our projects. Whether it’s monogramming a quilt with a loved one’s initials or incorporating meaningful symbols and motifs, couching offers a way to infuse quilts with personality and sentiment.

Getting started

Gather your supplies: your longarm machine, your Couching Feet set, some yarn. Load your practice piece onto your frame or create a few practice sandwiches for your stationary machine. Your first question will be:

How to get the yarn through the hole in the foot

Watch this video featuring the designer of the couching feet herself, Helen Godden. Helen explains how to start and stop.  She shows just how easy it is to thread the yarn through the foot.

How to choose which size foot to use

You’ll want the yarn to flow smoothly through the hole in the foot. While at the same time filling the hole as much as possible so that when you’re quilting, the needle will have no choice but to stitch through the yarn. I like to test this by threading the yarn through the foot before I attach it to the machine. I pay close attention to the yarn to be sure it fills the hole in the foot. Then I “floss” the yarn through the hole to be sure it flows smoothly. I start with the smallest foot I think will work.

Keep your yarn loose

When you are ready to stitch, pull off some yarn from your skein or ball and let it sit loosely on the quilt top. You do not want any tension on the yarn as it flows into the foot.

Start stitching. You can stitch any quilting design you’d like. You’ll want to avoid any dense background fills as you’ll lose the design with the thick line of yarn. Think of it like drawing with a thick marker rather than a fine pencil. You’ll want to stop occasionally and pull off more yarn to keep it flowing with no tension.

You can even couch with Pro-Stitcher! Choose a loose open design. Stay at your machine as the Pro-Stitcher quilts to pay out the yarn and keep it flowing freely.

Ideas

Add extra texture

-add some extra texture and interest to any quilted piece

Raw edge applique

– outline your fabric pieces with a couched fiber. You’ll be stitching down the pieces while at the same time hiding the raw edges with couching. Use black yarn to get a stained glass look.

Yarn painting

– You’ve heard of thread painting? Where an image is created using thread. Yarn painting is the same concept. You create the shapes and texture of your image with yarn. It’s fun and goes way faster than thread painting!

Quick and easy baby quilt

– I like to make cute gifts using flannel and chenille yarn. I simply stitch an all-over design couching the chenille yarn as I go. It makes for a soft and snuggly quilt with some added color and texture!

Add a pop of color

– sometimes a wholecloth needs a little extra pop. I used a metallic yarn around the center medallion to make it stand out even more.

Imitate the look of piped binding

– Love the look of a piped binding. Don’t love the time and work it takes to do it. Couch some yarn in the ditch next to the binding and you get the look without the stress. In the quilt above I used the same metallic yarn to create the faux-piped binding.

Create fabric to use for other projects

– Couch whatever pattern you like on some fabric to create a new, unique textured fabric. Then cut it up and use it for another project. Be sure to stay-stitch around your cut pieces to keep your fibers from fraying at the edges.

Couching is a versatile and exciting technique that adds a touch of magic to longarm machine quilting. Whether you’re looking to enhance texture, dimension, or personalization in your quilting projects, couching offers a wealth of opportunities for creative expression. So, grab your longarm machine, your couching foot set, some fibers, and let your imagination soar as you expand your quilting horizons.

Learn more at our YouTube channel with the search for “couching“. There are lots of videos for instruction and inspiration!

And don’t forget to

Quilt Every Day!

by Mary Beth Krapil