The Finish – Christmas Countdown Quilt-A-Long with Helen Godden
At the start of December 2022 our friend, Helen Godden, started her annual Christmas Countdown Quilt-a-long. Helen is our Handi Quilter Ambassador who lives in Australia. She’s an accomplished artist and a superb stationary machine quilter. I decided to join in the quilt-a-long and take you all along with me. So today I will share […]
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Christmas Countdown Quilt-a-long with Helen Godden
Have you seen the Christmas Countdown Quilt-a-long for 2022 from our friend, Helen Godden? This is the 7th year that Helen is doing her quilt-a-long. It’s tons of fun and you just might learn a few new quilting techniques along the way. Helen is our Handi Quilter Ambassador who lives in Australia. She’s an accomplished […]
Read MoreTension Headache
I’ve got a cure for your tension headache. Tension is the first thing you need to learn when starting out with longarm quilting. It’s not hard to learn. Many quilters have a bit of a mental block about it. We have been told repeatedly to not touch the tension on our domestic machine’s bobbin. Fear […]
Read MorePerfection
With this series of posts about free-motion quilting for beginners, I have been emphasizing the importance of practice. I encourage all my students to quilt every day. I think of practice not as attempting to achieve perfection, but of attempting to improve. It is a way of generating new ideas and trying new techniques. Sometimes […]
Read MoreTaking off on a Diagonal Tangent
Last week we used a diagonal path for filling a grid. Let’s take off on a tangent and try a few new things with using diagonal quilting combined with grids. I like to try to find a way to quilt a design that makes it easy to stitch AND gives me great looking results. Win-win! […]
Read MoreFun with Loops and Grids
We filled half-square triangles with loops to create some fun texture. Now let’s get a a little crazy and create some more fun with loops. Work on the diagonal It’s time to branch out and try a little something different. Rather than travel horizontally or even vertically, we can choose a diagonal stitch path. We’ll […]
Read MoreLoops and Grids
Did you happen to catch the July 5, 2022 HQ Watch and Learn on Facebook? More grid work! You can watch it here. Kristina used loops in one of her examples. And I promised to do some grid designs with loops this week! Let’s start by talking through Kristina’s design. Break Up Your Grid Instead […]
Read MoreMore Filled Grid Variations – Swirl
Last week we filled grids with straight lines, curves and S-shapes. That leaves two more of the 5 basic shapes to create even more filled grid variations, swirl and loop. Swirl The swirl is a fun one to quilt because it flows so easily. If you are not proficient at quilting swirls, remember to practice […]
Read MoreFilled Grid Variations
Now that you’ve got the basics of filled grids from our last post, it’s time to kick it up a notch and explore some filled grid variations. If you’ve been following along with this Free Motion Quilting for Beginners series, I bet you can guess what I’m going to say next. IYKYK. If you’re new […]
Read MoreSkill Sets
If you have been following along with our Free Motion Quilting for Beginners series, you already know the importance of practice for gaining FMQ skills. I like to think of practice time as play time. It’s stress-free quilting time. Time to bond with your machine. No worries about making mistakes. No worries about getting out […]
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