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Free Motion Quilting

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NOTE : I no longer promote Craftsy/Bluprint as I used to due to the way the subscription is currently being carried out. I had the issue of cancelling my subscription when the company changed hand and I find that cancelling through calls is inconvenient. However, I do still stand behind these classes I promote and if you are subscribed, you can surely check these classes I recommend on the platform. If you are looking for another online platform to learn craft such as quilting, do check out CreativeBug. It is much cheaper in subscription (subscribe now 3 months for only $5). Thank you.
 

I am sharing with you today how I quilted block 11 – Four Square

If you are new here, this post is a part of my quilt-as-you-go my Sewcial Bee Sampler, a sew-along hosted by Sharon Holland and Maureen Cracknell. I plan to share along the process with some tips and tutorial.

As usual, I have two blocks made for two quilts, one with custom quilting and one with allover quilting. Both would be a great practice if you are looking towards improving your free-motion skill. I am still practicing myself, especially with the custom quilting. I am learning as I go, so let’s do this together!

If you are new here, this post is a part of my quilt-as-you-go my Sewcial Bee Sampler which I plan to share along the process along with some tips and tutorial. Click here to  related Archive posts.

NOTE : I no longer promote Craftsy/Bluprint as I used to due to the way the subscription is currently being carried out. I had the issue of cancelling my subscription when the company changed hand and I find that cancelling through calls is inconvenient. However, I do still stand behind these classes I promote and if you are subscribed, you can surely check these classes I recommend on the platform. If you are looking for another online platform to learn craft such as quilting, do check out CreativeBug. It is much cheaper in subscription (subscribe now 3 months for only $5). Thank you.

 

I am sharing with you today how I quilted block 10 – Butterfly Crossing

If you are new here, this post is a part of my quilt-as-you-go my Sewcial Bee Sampler, a sew-along hosted by Sharon Holland and Maureen Cracknell. I plan to share along the process with some tips and tutorial.

As usual, I have two blocks made for two quilts, one with custom quilting and one with allover quilting. Both would be a great practice if you are looking towards improving your free-motion skill. I am still practicing myself, especially with the custom quilting. I am learning as I go, so let’s do this together!

If you are new here, this post is a part of my quilt-as-you-go my Sewcial Bee Sampler which I plan to share along the process along with some tips and tutorial. Click here to  related Archive posts.

I am sharing with you today how I quilted block 9 – Wedding Ring.

If you are new here, this post is a part of my quilt-as-you-go my Sewcial Bee Sampler, a sew-along hosted by Sharon Holland and Maureen Cracknell. I plan to share along the process with some tips and tutorial.

As usual, I have two blocks made for two quilts, one with custom quilting and one with allover quilting. Both would be a great practice if you are looking towards improving your free-motion skill. I am still practicing myself, especially with the custom quilting. I am learning as I go, so let’s do this together!

Some links provided here are affiliate links for your convenience. Please find my full disclosure here.

Quilt as you go

Quilt as you go block-by-block is one method you could opt for when you want to make quilting large quilts on your domestic machine feasible. It is one of my go-to methods especially if I want to skip the heavy work pushing through large quilts within my machine throat space.

Besides, I love the fact that I can easily finish blocks by blocks and even have a fancy backing like this one I made earlier. If you are interested to learn how I piece the block together, here is one way how to do it – using small sashing strips.

Spray Basting Quilt Sandwiches

In order to quilt-as-you-go block-by-block, I first made each block into a quilt sandwich, basting with Spray Baste adhesive. I love spray basting as it removes the need to undo pins as you quilt especially for small blocks like these.

You can choose to use the same fabrics for the backing, however, I decided to do mine scrappy solid for the allover quilting quilt and scrappy printed for the custom quilt. The scrappy solid backing will look something like this one I made earlier.

 

Allover Quilting Motif: Woodgrain

For the allover quilting, I chose to do the woodgrain motif.

Woodgrain motif is fairly simple motif, mostly organic wavy vertical lines across the quilt. I love this motif for a small quilt or small area, and I am yet to try it with larger quilt someday.

To add features to the woodgrain motif, spiral knots are added in here and there in random places to fill up areas and to bring more life to the quilt motif. If you would like to try this motif, I have a simple tutorial here for you.

How to free motion quilt woodgrain motif

You will need:

  • Pen and Paper
  • Free motion quilting foot. Read here for more detail info which foot is best.
  • A good thread. I use Superior Threads for all of my quilting
  • The right needle. I suggest using top stitch needle as it has a larger eye to avoid wearing off your thread.

How to free motion quilt woodgrain motif

  1. Start with a wavy line as far as you like – it doesn’t have to be all the way down to the other side of the quilt (especially if you are quilting large quilt). For this quilt block, since it is fairly small, all of my lines are from one edge to another.
  2. Echo back about a quarter inch from the first wavy line all the way back and begin to create the first knot by making a hook away from the wavy line.
  3. Fill in the hook with spiral hooks coming back out to echo the rest of the wavy line down and back up echoing around the knot.
  4. Keep going by echoing the lines and create another knot to balance the first knot.
  5. Fill up areas with just echoes to avoid too many knot shapes.
  6. repeat echoes. and create a half knot in edges area by simple echoing in v-shape as in figure 6.
  7. continue the pattern and if required, move on to the next area to fill in.

I do suggest you try this pattern with pen and paper first. This will give you the idea on how the final look will be, how you are to navigate from one place to another, and how the motion is.

Free motion quilting woodgrain Sewcial Bee Sampler Custom Quilting Quilt As You Go Blocks

After having the confidence practicing on paper, you can move onto free motion quilting on scrap fabric basted with leftover batting. This is to ensure you have good tension and have a good sense of moving your quilt in the direction you want it to go. Then you can move onto quilting your block.

 

make sure you pin this to try them later!

how to free motion quilt allover woodgrain.more free motion quilting tutorials on the blog

Custom free motion quilting on quilt as you go blocks

For the other quilt, each block is going to be custom quilted, which means each will be designed accordingly with the block pattern.

The benefit of using quilt-as-you-go block is that it is so much easy to maneuver with small blocks and custom quilting is made easier under the throat of a domestic machine. Plus, your shoulder should thank you too!

I planned the custom quilting using Sharon Holland’s colouring page which  Sharon Holland and Maureen Cracknell have available for download in the Intro section. I simply view them in magnified mode on my screen and crop each block into JPG on its own (You can use (shift+command+4 on Mac) or use snips in Microsoft.

Then, I printed the block individually and plan out the quilting with pencils. While doing it with the pencil I also plan how will I be moving the needle from one place to another.

Custom free motion quilting Sewcial Bee Sampler Custom Quilting Quilt As You Go BlocksI

 

No marking Custom Quilting

For this block, I did not do any markings prior to quilting.

I basically have something in mind on how I would quilt it, sketch them on the printed block and went straight to the machine.

I use a lot of dot-to-dot quilting in this block. In the centre and the yellow rectangles.

For the centre, orange peel again, making a small cathedral window effect. I added some pearls in between echoed lines to bring more details.

To continue with the feather theme I have with all of these custom quilted blocks, I added circular feather around the centre square. I am falling in love with feathers around a curved line. Especially if they go all the way around completing the whole round.

As for the half square triangle corners, I decided to keep it simple and make the printed fabric pop even more by dense matchstick quilting the solid background fabric.

Since I will be piecing these blocks together, I decided to make the points of the triangles in the yellow rectangle about 1/4 inch away from the edge. This way, my points are still going to be there once the blocks are sewn together later when putting the quilt together. I just eyeball this, if you are not confident with eyeballing, you can go ahead and do some marking.

 

 

Well, if you decide to join along or have any questions, drop me a comment. I will be happy to help where I can! In the meantime, you can also check these free motion quilting tips!

How to Quilt As You Go A Sampler Quilt

Click here to related Archive posts.
until next time, have fun sewing and quilting!

NOTE : I no longer promote Craftsy/Bluprint as I used to due to the way the subscription is currently being carried out. I had the issue of cancelling my subscription when the company changed hand and I find that cancelling through calls is inconvenient. However, I do still stand behind these classes I promote and if you are subscribed, you can surely check these classes I recommend on the platform. If you are looking for another online platform to learn craft such as quilting, do check out CreativeBug. It is much cheaper in subscription (subscribe now 3 months for only $5). Thank you.
 

For more dot-to-dot quilting ideas, I highly recommend this Craftsy Class!

 

NOTE : I no longer promote Craftsy/Bluprint as I used to due to the way the subscription is currently being carried out. I had the issue of cancelling my subscription when the company changed hand and I find that cancelling through calls is inconvenient. However, I do still stand behind these classes I promote and if you are subscribed, you can surely check these classes I recommend on the platform. If you are looking for another online platform to learn craft such as quilting, do check out CreativeBug. It is much cheaper in subscription (subscribe now 3 months for only $5). Thank you.
 

I am sharing with you today how I quilted block 8 – Clay’s Choice.

If you are new here, this post is a part of my quilt-as-you-go my Sewcial Bee Sampler, a sew-along hosted by Sharon Holland and Maureen Cracknell. I plan to share along the process with some tips and tutorial.

As usual, I have two blocks made for two quilts, one with custom quilting and one with allover quilting. Both would be a great practice if you are looking towards improving your free-motion skill. I am still practicing myself, especially with the custom quilting. I am learning as I go, so let’s do this together!

If you are new here, this post is a part of my quilt-as-you-go my Sewcial Bee Sampler which I plan to share along the process along with some tips and tutorial. Click here to  related Archive posts.

NOTE : I no longer promote Craftsy/Bluprint as I used to due to the way the subscription is currently being carried out. I had the issue of cancelling my subscription when the company changed hand and I find that cancelling through calls is inconvenient. However, I do still stand behind these classes I promote and if you are subscribed, you can surely check these classes I recommend on the platform. If you are looking for another online platform to learn craft such as quilting, do check out CreativeBug. It is much cheaper in subscription (subscribe now 3 months for only $5). Thank you.
 

I am sharing with you today how I quilted block 7 – Dove in the Window.

If you are new here, this post is a part of my quilt-as-you-go my Sewcial Bee Sampler, a sew-along hosted by Sharon Holland and Maureen Cracknell. I plan to share along the process with some tips and tutorial.

As usual, I have two blocks made for two quilts, one with custom quilting and one with allover quilting. Both would be a great practice if you are looking towards improving your free-motion skill. I am still practicing myself, especially with the custom quilting. I am learning as I go, so let’s do this together!

Some links provided here are affiliate links for your convenience. Please find my full disclosure here.

Quilt as you go

Quilt as you go block-by-block, is one method you could opt for when you want to make quilting large quilts on your domestic machine feasible. It is one of my go-to methods especially if I want to skip the heavy work pushing through large quilts within my machine throat space.

Besides, I love the fact that I can easily finish blocks by blocks and even have a fancy backing like this one I made earlier. If you are interested to learn how I piece the block together, here is one way how to do it – using small sashing strips.

Allover Quilting Motif: Spirals

For the allover quilting, I chose to do the spirals. Spiral is possibly one of the basic motifs that I like to go for when choosing a design to quilt.

Spiral quilting gives a lot of movement to the quilt and I think that is one of the reason it is one of my favourite motifs.

Spirals can easily be mixed together with other motifs and design to create more textures and movement. I love mixing it together with pebbles and wavy lines. However, to keep this block in uniform with the other blocks, I stick to a single motif for the block with an allover spiral design.

Here is the basic how to make spiral allover quilting.

How to free motion quilt spirals

You will need:

  • Pen and Paper
  • Free motion quilting foot. Read here for more detail info which foot is best.
  • A good thread. I use Superior Threads for all of my quilting
  • The right needle. I suggest using top stitch needle as it has a larger eye to avoid wearing off your thread.

learn how to free motion quilt spiral design

I do suggest you try this pattern with pen and paper first. This will give you the idea on how the final look will be, how you are to navigate from one place to another, and how the motion is.

Free Motion Quilting spirals How to

After having the confidence practicing on paper, you can move onto free motion quilting on scrap fabric basted with leftover batting. This is to ensure you have good tension and have a good sense of moving your quilt in the direction you want it to go. Then you can move onto quilting your block.

Here is the finished block with the spiral quilting.

make sure you pin this to try them later!

 

Custom free motion quilting on quilt as you go blocks

For the other quilt, each block is going to be custom quilted, which means each will be designed accordingly with the block pattern.

The benefit of using quilt-as-you-go block is that it is so much easy to maneuver with small blocks and custom quilting is made easier under the throat of a domestic machine. Plus, your shoulder should thank you too!

I planned the custom quilting using Sharon Holland’s colouring page which  Sharon Holland and Maureen Cracknell have available for download in the Intro section. I simply view them in magnified mode on my screen and crop each block into JPG on its own (You can use (shift+command+4 on Mac) or use snips in Microsoft.

Then, I printed the block individually and plan out the quilting with pencils. While doing it with the pencil I also plan how will I be moving the needle from one place to another.

practice custom quilting using quilt as you go technique on your domestic machine

 

Marking on the block for free motion quilting for quilt as you go blocks

You will need:

  • Hera marker
  • Water erasable pen
  • Quarter inch ruler

On the quilt block, make sure custom quilting are made within the finished block size – which means, you have to mark a 1/4″  frame line from the block seams. This is to ensure that when joining the blocks together, the quilting does not get covered by the seams.

You can mark using a Hera marker or an erasable .

For this block, I decided to try out dot-to-dot quilting technique and skip marking anything on the block itself. I made an orange peel centre using this very technique I learned from Angela’s Class.

As for the flying geese, I decided to leave them popping up by dense quilting the background with matchstick quilting.

Since there is no border in this block, I decided to put the feather element in the four corners to sync with all the previous blocks.

NOTE : I no longer promote Craftsy/Bluprint as I used to due to the way the subscription is currently being carried out. I had the issue of cancelling my subscription when the company changed hand and I find that cancelling through calls is inconvenient. However, I do still stand behind these classes I promote and if you are subscribed, you can surely check these classes I recommend on the platform. If you are looking for another online platform to learn craft such as quilting, do check out CreativeBug. It is much cheaper in subscription (subscribe now 3 months for only $5). Thank you.
 

Free Motion Quilting Custom Block by Block Quilt As You Go

Well, if you decide to join along or have any questions, drop me a comment. I will be happy to help where I can! In the meantime, you can also check these free motion quilting tips!

How to Quilt As You Go A Sampler Quilt

Click here to related Archive posts.
until next time, have fun sewing and quilting!

NOTE : I no longer promote Craftsy/Bluprint as I used to due to the way the subscription is currently being carried out. I had the issue of cancelling my subscription when the company changed hand and I find that cancelling through calls is inconvenient. However, I do still stand behind these classes I promote and if you are subscribed, you can surely check these classes I recommend on the platform. If you are looking for another online platform to learn craft such as quilting, do check out CreativeBug. It is much cheaper in subscription (subscribe now 3 months for only $5). Thank you.
 

For more dot-to-dot quilting ideas, I highly recommend this Craftsy Class!

 

If you are new to free motion quilting, you will most likely encounter some of these free motion quilting problems listed here. Hopefully, this guide will benefit you, allowing you to enjoy the most of the free motion quilting process.

If you are a free motion quilting beginner and would love more help, 

Join my FREE E-course on FREE MOTION QUILTING FOR BEGINNERS HERE >> 

free motion quilting tutorial

I am passionate about free motion quilting and I have been quilting all my quilts on my domestic machines. As I go from projects to projects, I have learned a lot from mistakes, trials, and errors.

Hence, I would love to share with you some of the things that I learned throughout my experience and ways to solve some of the common free-motion quilting problems that I have encountered.

I want you to enjoy most of your quilting time rather than worrying about these free motion quilting problems.

The final project for the Feather Quilting Mini Course is here!

A mix of modern bright colours with simple patchwork and free motion feather quilting is definitely something to brighten up any table.

I designed the runner with minimal maths to allow for more details on the quilting.

Slight improv technique involved in piecing the runner, but don’t worry the pattern will take you through it step by step!

NOTE : I no longer promote Craftsy/Bluprint as I used to due to the way the subscription is currently being carried out. I had the issue of cancelling my subscription when the company changed hand and I find that cancelling through calls is inconvenient. However, I do still stand behind these classes I promote and if you are subscribed, you can surely check these classes I recommend on the platform. If you are looking for another online platform to learn craft such as quilting, do check out CreativeBug. It is much cheaper in subscription (subscribe now 3 months for only $5). Thank you.
 

I am sharing with you today how I quilted block 6 – The Seasons.

If you are new here, this post is a part of my quilt-as-you-go my Sewcial Bee Sampler, a sew-along hosted by Sharon Holland and Maureen Cracknell. I plan to share along the process with some tips and tutorial.

As usual, I have two blocks made for two quilts, one  with custom quilting and one with allover quilting. Both would be a great practice if you are looking towards improving your free-motion skill. I am still practicing myself, especially with the custom quilting. I am learning as I go too, so let’s do this together!

If you are new here, this post is a part of my quilt-as-you-go my Sewcial Bee Sampler which I plan to share along the process along with some tips and tutorial. Click here to  related Archive posts.

 Practice, practice, practice…

“Practice makes perfect”

That right there is a very common saying we’ve heard when it comes to just about any skills.  but….perfect is so overrated. Nothing is perfect right? But…practice do make it better.

 

Free motion quilting is one of those skills that really relies on practice.

In practicing free motion quilting, memory muscles become stronger as we practice, thus the movement of our hands become much smoother as we progress through.