Practice with Purpose

If you’ve been following along with our Free Motion Quilting for Beginners series, you know how important practice is. And you probably have a pile of quilted fabric that you’re not quite sure what to do with.

Some of them you’ll want to toss. Maybe you breathed new life into a piece by adding a second or third top layer and reused the batting and backing. That’s a great money saver! Maybe your tension was so bad, the back looks like a nest. Go ahead and toss those! They served their purpose. You learned, you gained skills, and you grew as a quilter.

Some might make a good liner for the cargo area of your car. They keep everything clean and are easily washable! Note: I did not add a binding; I just tuck the raw edges under. No one will ever know!

Don’t Toss Your First Quilting Practice Piece

NEVER toss your first practice piece. Its purpose is to remind you how far you’ve come. Put a binding on it! Hang it up! (Maybe somewhere only you will see it.) Or just keep it in a drawer and pull it out if—or when—you get frustrated trying to learn a new design.

It’s good to see just how much you can accomplish with free-motion quilting practice.

Now that you have had lots of practice, the next time you want to learn a design, you might want to think about how you could use the practice piece. Then choose your fabric accordingly.

Practice Free-Motion Quilting with a Purpose

Do you remember the echo quilting design from Helen Godden called Roadmaps?

When I stitched out a sample of that design, I thought about how I might use it. I was wanting to do some couching with the HQ Couching Feet. It’s just so addicting!

I wanted to try quilting the fabric first, then couching a design over the background quilting. My background quilting needed to be simple but interesting. Roadmaps checked all the boxes!

Turning Quilting Practice into a Bag

I thought I would make a bag out of the finished piece, so I quilted two Roadmaps. One for the front and one for the back of the bag. I chose my fabric with all of those criteria in mind.

The batting was also a consideration for the project. I like using foam for my bags. It gives them good structure and crispness while still being soft. And quilting foam really shows the quilting texture! There are many brands out there. Just search for foam batting for sewing to see what is available.

I loaded the foam just like I would normally load a backing. Then I basted my top fabric in place. Using a blue water-soluble marker, I marked my swirls and then quilted the echoes. Go back and read the post on Roadmaps to see how to do it.

There was not enough of the fabric I chose, so I used a coordinating fabric and quilted the other piece in the same way for the back of the bag.

Then life and other commitments happened. The quilted pieces rested and waited until I had some time to do the couching.

Adding Couching to the Quilted Fabric

I marked a rough outline of what I wanted to couch and gathered my yarns. You can visit our Handi Quilter YouTube channel and search for couching videos to learn how it’s done and get even more inspiration for projects.

I used several different yarns to create interesting texture.

Making the Quilted Tote Bag

Once I was happy with my couching, I trimmed the pieces and cut some lining as well.

You can use your quilted pieces to make just about any bag pattern of your choice. I didn’t use a pattern. I’ve made so many bags over the years, I just winged it!

It was a fun project that started out with “practice with purpose.” And now I have a new summer tote!

How Do You Reuse Quilting Practice Pieces?

What is your favorite way to use or repurpose quilting practice pieces?

We’d LOVE to hear! Let us know in the comments.

By Mary Beth Krapil