A Free-Motion Quilting Success! / Beauties Pageant 190

Longtime readers know my heart belongs to straight-line quilting. I particularly like parallel lines on a diagonal, but I also love a good cross-hatch or something slightly fancier a la Jacquie Gering (see the list of links at the bottom of the post for examples of past projects). When a project warrants a quilting design with soft curves or something intricate, I usually opt to “quilt by check” and send the project to a longarmer.

Free-motion quilting appeals to me in theory, but up until now, I haven’t free-motion quilted frequently enough to master anything more than a simple stipple, which makes my current project noteworthy.

I’m not ready reveal anything more than a peek or two of this quilt. It’s slated to be submitted to QuiltCon, and if it’s accepted, I like the idea of withholding it from blog readers and social media until after the show. But the gist of the project is this: I pieced large-scale blocks using my Still Pretty Simple Jelly Roll Quilt pattern and then free-motion quilted a series of words horizontally across it. To practice quilting the words, I composed them in a Word document and printed them out on newspaper. Then I experimented using small quilt sandwiches. Doing so improved my muscle memory and helped me get better at stopping and starting midword. In fact, the paper worked so well that I decided to quilt the entire 62-inch by 70-inch project with the technique.

As you can imagine, it’s been slow going. I’ve been pinning a word to the sandwich, quilting it, and then pinning the next one. The picture above shows me a few lines from the bottom of the project (I started at the top and worked left to right). At this point, there is so much bulk. I have to pivot the quilt to be able to smooth it out and pin the next word, and then I pivot it back under the arm of the machine to do the actual quilting. It’s been quite the wrestling match.

I think the results are worth the hassle, though, and honestly I don’t know if I’d be able to get this caliber of quilting text any other way. Ripping out the paper, however, has proved to be a headache. Tiny fibers of newsprint are getting caught underneath the stitches, and I’ve resorted to using a seam ripper and tweezers to tease them out. : /

Slow and steady will win this race! Wish me luck!

Examples of quilting designs I’ve used to date:

• Parallel lines: Thimbleblossoms’ Norway Quilt
  
• Fancy-for-me straight-line quilting: She’s No Angel
  
• Straight-line quilting a la Jaquie Gering: Elizabeth Hartman’s Neighborhood Quilt
  
• Stippling: For a Special Little Dude
  

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