June 14, 2017

2 Great Books For Free Motion Quilting

I've been doing free-motion "loop-d-loops" on my quilts for some time.  As much as I love doing that, it's high time I got on with coming up with some other patterns to use.

Well - I found two great books:  "Shape By Shape" and "Shape by Shape Collection 2" by Angela Walters.  Each book has more than 70 different stitching patterns, with easy-to-follow directions and lots of sample photos.


One of the things she recommends is to try drawing out the design you want with a pencil and paper (or, as I've done, with a whiteboard and marker).  It helps a lot to work out the motions associated with the patterns - and I found even simple patterns can be more challenging than you expect when you start out.  Much, MUCH better to make mistakes on a whiteboard.

Next I grabbed some scraps of fabric and batting and set up a small practice sandwich to mount on the longarm.  And away I go!

These wavy lines were fun to do - but, as you can see, keeping the lines straight wasn't all that easy.

I had better luck with the patterns below, especially the wavy feathers on the bottom.

Here's one (below) that didn't work out quite so wellI'll have to practice that one quite a bit, I think.  The sample in Angela's book looks terrific.  I'm sure I can refine my technique if I keep working on it.
It's great fun trying out these patterns.  I hope to be able to use some of them on projects very soon!

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