My top Ten Tips for Free Motion Machine Quilting

Posted on July 27, 2011 by Linda Matthews

Looking for some “fabulous” free motion quilting tips?

Then look no further.

I don’t make many quilts any more, but I still do a lot of free motion – mostly free motion embroidery like this.

Free Motion Quilting

But I’ve been doing free motion for as long as I can remember (that’s a long time) and I know some of you struggle with it, so here are my Top Ten favorite tips for free motion ..

#1: the quilt sandwich

Before you begin machine quilting, you should ensure that your quilt is properly sandwiched and basted. Time taken for preparation beforehand will prevent problems occurring during the machine quilting process.

The backing and the batting should be at least 2" larger than the quilt top on all sides.
Press the top and the backing
Lay out the backing, wrong side up
Smooth out all the wrinkles
Lay out the batting on top of the backing and smooth out all the wrinkles
Center the quilt top, right side up, on top of the batting and smooth out all the wrinkles
Baste in place

Basting can be done using any of the following methods

basting spray
There are a variety of basting sprays available. For best results, follow the instructions on the can, and always ensure you’re in a well-ventilated area when using basting sprays.

safety pins
Quilter’s safety pins are slightly bent so that they are easy to remove as you’re sewing. Start pinning at one end of the quilt and work your way across and up, folding the quilt if necessary and ensuring that the quilt lays flat and wrinkle-free before you pin. Space the safety pins up to 6" apart.

hand stitching
Use a long darning needle to hand stitch and the process will go much quicker.

Baste close to the outer edge of the quilt first and then work across from one side to the other
If you’re right-handed, work right to left; if you’re left-handed, work left to right
Backstitch at the end of each row
Basting lines should be approx 6" apart
When you’re done basting across the quilt, rotate the quilt 45 deg and baste across the quilt in that direction also

Free Motion Quilting

#2: a good sewing or quilting machine

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Things to do with scraps

Posted on April 1, 2011 by Linda Matthews

As I mentioned the other day, my next online class is going to be all about fabric paper so I was recently going through some of my old art quilts looking for samples where I’ve used fabric paper, and rediscovered this cute little art quilt “Scraps”.

“Scraps” is about 18″ x 12″ and it was made from – well – scraps! – stuff that would normally end up in the rubbish bin. After teaching a surface design workshop one day, I ended up with a lovely pile of color coordinated bits and pieces. I guess I had nothing better to do the next day so I quickly made this art quilt from the leftover scraps.

Fabric Paper

The fabric paper (the main pink background) is made from my favorite muslin, tissue and cheesecloth recipe which I hand painted and added some free motion quilting using metallic thread to give it some additional texture, design and sparkle.

Fabric Paper

The pale green patches are made from hand painted and heat treated tyvek with some embellishment and stitching, and the appliques are made from foiled and painted brown paper. I added some hand stitching around the edges but as I recall, that was tough work. Tyvek isn’t that easy to hand sew.

Fabric Paper

To make the prairie points I used more of the brown paper fused to peltex with some machine wrapped cording to finsih the edges.

Fabric Paper

Then I sewed the center piece all together and mounted it onto a free motion quilted background. It’s had to believe all these bits and pieces were almost destined for the rubbish bin. Don’t you just *love* this little quilt?

Fabric Paper

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Fabric Painting, Dyeing and Stamping

Posted on December 14, 2010 by Linda Matthews

For me, the best part about embellishing is using beautiful fabric with beautiful colors to work with and what better way to acquire beautifully colored fabric than to make it yourself by dyeing it, painting it or stamping it.

If you’re interested in fabric dyeing, there is no better resource than Paula Burch’s website, but be warned, you could possibly spend days wandering around in there as she has so much fabulous information and inspiration including many fabric dyeing tutorials.

You’ll also find some great information on the Fabric Dyeing 101 website with more free fabric dyeing tutorials including free recipes and even some business advice.

A really quick way to change the appearance of your fabric is to simply add some surface design such as simple fabric painting and/or fabric stamping.

Start out with some hand dyed or even some plain or tone-on-tone commercial fabric.

Fabric Painting Tutorial

You could stamp directly onto the fabric, but I often like to begin with some free motion quilting and then stamp and paint over it.

Free Motion Quilting

Then add some fabric paint by painting the design. For this design I used glitter fabric.

Fabric Painting

Fabric Painting Tutorial

Then using a stamp, I stamped over the painted design.

Fabric Stamping Tutorial

You can see how the design changes dramatically using only a simple stamp.

Fabric Stamping Tutorial

This will make a great background for an art quilt.

Fabric Stamping Tutorial

And if that’s not enough inspiration, you can find a couple of great fabric painting tutorials here on Sonji Hunt’s website and here on Alma Stoller’s blog.

I hope this inspires you to play a little today.

This post is part of the 30 Days of Titivations; a 30 day blogathon all about embellishing and embellishments.

You can find lots of free embellishment tutorials in the tutorials section of my blog which can be found here.

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Getting Ready to be Titivated

Posted on November 5, 2010 by Linda Matthews

Today I’m packing and getting ready to teach my Titivations workshop tomorrow. Here are some of the samples these lucky students will get to see close up and personal ….

Even though my students are part of an art doll group, the embellishing techniques they’ll learn can be applied to any sort of textile project – art quilts, art dolls, wearables.

This is one of my favorite art quilts – “In The Garden: Flowers”. This is one of a series of three art quilts embellished with soft edges using machine needlelace, and of course, lots of free motion embroidery and hand beading.

Art Quilt - In The Garden: Flowers

Another favorite is “Soliloquy”, heavily embellished with free motion quilting and beads.

Art Quilt - Soliloquy

And “Puddles”, also heavily embellished with hand stitching, beading, machine needlelace and three dimensional elements. The background was machine needle felted and I showed you some samples of machine needle felting yesterday.

Art Quilt - Puddles

And I’m also packing the kits. Whoo hoo! What fun!

In The Garden: Flowers

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Being Fabulous on Amelia Island

Posted on October 14, 2010 by Linda Matthews

Sore feet alert!!! (I must be getting old – ouch!) I think today will be recovery day after spending yesterday teaching a fabulous workshop to the lovely ladies from the Amelia Island Quilt Guild.

And by fabulous I mean Fabulous Free Motion Quilting.

We eased into the day talking about threads, needles, tension and tools …

Fabulous Free Motion Quilting

Then we reviewed the basics of the free motion technique using both straight stitch and zig-zag stitch and bobbinwork! The ladies were amazed at how easy it was to free motion quilt with a zig-zag stitch and bobbinwork …

Fabulous Free Motion Quilting

.. and just how fabulous it looked. So thank you ladies for being courageous enough to try something new and a little out of your comfort zone.

Fabulous Free Motion Quilting

Then we got our hands dirty with a little bit of fabric painting and stamping.

Fabulous Free Motion Quilting

They were very good at keeping the mess to a minimum.

Fabulous Free Motion Quilting

After the paint had dried, the designs then had to be quilted … of course!

Fabulous Free Motion Quilting

The perfect way to make any free motion quilting fabulous … a touch of Angelina Fiber.

Fabulous Free Motion Quilting

Teaching beginner students is always fun and I love to see them get inspired by what I can teach them. But it’s also always an inspiration for me because their excitement helps me to remember what it was like when I first learned these techniques – seeing old familiar things through new eyes.

So thank you ladies for a fabulous day of teaching and learning, and I hope you all had fun!
.

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Free Motion Quilting … Just Fabulous!

Posted on September 9, 2010 by Linda Matthews

This week I’m sharing with you some of my favorite techniques. On Tuesday we looked at machine needle felting, yesterday was all about Titivating Embellishments and today we look at the wonderful world of ~~free motion quilting~~ Fabulous Free Motion Quilting.

Decorative free motion quilting is one of my very favorite techniques, probably my favorite. I’ve been doing free motion quilting, free motion embroidery, and thread painting for as long as I can ever remember, which is a very long time indeed.

I love the freedom of being able to sew beautiful, decorative patterns and designs onto cloth using all the beautiful colors and types of threads that are available today.

And not only on fabric paper, I also like to free motion on my fabric paper …

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Titivations

Posted on September 8, 2010 by Linda Matthews

This week I’m sharing with you some of my favorite techniques. Yesterday we looked at machine needle felting. Today it’s all about
Embellishments.

Whether it’s art quilts, wearable art or accessories, or any other type of sewing project, adding some sort of embellishment is like adding the icing to the cake.

Embellishing can be as simple as adding a few hand stitches …

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In The Garden

Posted on July 19, 2010 by Linda Matthews

I haven’t made an art quilt in such a long time being so absorbed recently with my art bags, so I was a little nostalgic when my art quilt “Pomegranate” returned home to me last week after touring the country with the “Fibrations” exhibit for the last 12 months.

Art Quilt: Pomegranate

This little art quilt was part of my series “In The Garden” and was one of three small embellished art quilts that I completed exploring “soft edges”.

The other two were “Flowers”

Art Quilt: Flowers

and “Leaves”

Art Quilt: Leaves

I really enjoyed the process of working with soft edges using free motion embroidery techniques and water soluble stabilizer and you can see the soft edges better in this closeup.

Art Quilt: Flowers

You can also see where this art quilt series started in these posts:

Hand Dyed Fabric: Playing with Complementary Colors
Hand Dyed Fabric: Still Playing with Complementary Colors
Hand Dyed Fabric: All Done Playing with Complementary Colors

It just may be that I’ll just have play with some art quilts this week.

Have a nostalgic day!

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Free Machine Quilting Patterns

Posted on April 25, 2009 by Linda Matthews

It’s always nice to get something for free so please enjoy this downloadable pdf ebook of easy machine quilting designs “The Little Book of ~Easy~ Machine Quilting Designs” (right click and save to your desktop). These designs are continuous line drawings, simple in shape, and are suitable for beginners.

The patterns are compiled in an ebook in pdf format for convenience, so you will need Adobe Reader to view it and if you need to update your Adobe Reader, click on the “Get Adobe Reader” logo. This is a free update.

The designs are continuous line designs and simple in shape and perfect for beginners.

Included in the booklet are 12 designs:
4 block designs
4 free motion designs
4 border designs

These designs should be printed out and enlarged to size before using.

Tips for Free Motion Designs for Beginners

Free motion quilting designs are generally stitched without transferring the design to the fabric, in other words they are stitched freehand. This can be tricky when you are first starting out, however the following tips should help.

The best way to start with free motion designs is with pencil and paper. Just like writing your name, free motion designs can be learned in a similar manner.

Using the designs in the ebook, lay a sheet of transparent paper over the top and trace the outline without lifting your pencil from the paper. Do this a number of times until you are comfortable with the movements. Then take a piece of copy paper and practice freehand.

Once your brain has comprehended the flow of the line, you will find it an easy transition from paper and pencil, to machine and thread.

And of course, the only way you will ever get good at anything is with – practice, practice, practice !

You’ll find even more tips here.

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Hand Dyed Fabric: Still Playing with Complementary Colors

Posted on April 16, 2009 by Linda Matthews

If you remember the beautiful hand dyed fabric that I ended up with last week after my fun dye-day, for a few days they lay on my worktable taunting me until I finally gave in and decided to work with them.

Here is what’s happening so far:

I took one of the fat quarters with mostly purple color, cut it in half and made a quilt sandwich with some cotton batting in between. I added some free motion quilting for background texture, and then cut some lime green/yellow squares and frayed the edges and pinned in place.

Machine Embroidery