I started ruler quilting a few years ago after attending Quilt Market in Houston. I stopped by the Sew Steady booth and watched in wonder as it was demoed at the show by Donelle McAdams. I signed myself up to learn how to do this from Donelle and purchased all the stuff on the spot. Fast forward a few years and I've taught the beginner class I learned through the class with Donelle several times at my shop. When COVID hit Sew Steady pivoted quickly to offering high quality virtual classes. My shop has sponsored several of their virtual ...

I was able to finish my Fence Art this week. I really love how it turned out. 

Outdoor Textile Art

Colours in the Garden - finished!

Garden Art on the fence adds colour when the flowers are fading

I had a lot of fun FMQ the bee. The appliqué was all black with the ...

No change in the numbers this week.

I’m a little over half way through the quilting on Waugh Street Christmas.

I’d love to finish it this month, but there’s a lot going on this week. Some long days at work will cut into my quilting time.

Fabric In: 7.125 yards

Fabric Out: 5.125 yards

Net Fabric In: 2 yards

How did you do this week?

Last week we got started with the spiral, hook or swirl shape. This week we will talk about another kind of spiral. I call it the backtrack spiral. Instead of spiraling in, and then splitting the path you created to spiral out, you will backtrack spiral back out. Or in other words, you will stitch directly on top of the stitching you just did, only in the opposite direction. They look like this:

You start on the left and spiral in.

Then backtrack to spiral back out.

As you are backtracking, you can leave this spiral and start a new ...

Last week we got started with the spiral, hook or swirl shape. This week we will talk about another kind of spiral. I call it the backtrack spiral. Instead of spiraling in, and then splitting the path you created to spiral out, you will backtrack spiral back out. Or in other words, you will stitch directly on top of the stitching you just did, only in the opposite direction. They look like this:

You start on the left and spiral in.

Then backtrack to spiral back out.

As you are backtracking, you can leave this spiral and start a new ...

Fiery Comet is an oldie Goldie design from the first 100 days of this blog. Now let’s take this design and see what happens when quilt it as Fiery Comet Flower:

Quick Links from this free motion quilting tutorial:

Click Here to learn more about my home sewing machine – You don’t need a massive machine to learn free motion quilting. You just need a sturdy machine and a willingness to practice!

Deluxe Foot Set – This set includes two styles of walking feet, a darning foot, and a ruler foot! These are the feet I use for machine quilting ...

I finished the runner that served as a practice piece for the Waugh Street Christmas quilting design.

I enjoyed quilting this one and loved the design. It did exactly what I wanted it to do. Panels are such a great way to practice free motion quilting.

This project was my September OMG. I was determined to finish it over the long weekend rather than dragging it out.

No fabric in this week. I haven’t visited a quilt shop in months.

Fabric In: 7.125 yards

Fabric Out: 5.125 yards

Net Fabric In: 2 yards

How did you do ...

Moving on in our series on free motion quilting this week to our next shape, spirals (or hooks). We can really have some fun with this shape. It works for so many quilts. Like a meander, depending on the scale you choose, it can create a fabulous all over edge-to-edge quilting design or a fantastic background fill. Spirals can be used in blocks and borders too. And they are great combined with other shapes to create gorgeous designs.

Looking good

Let’s think about what makes a spiral look good. That way, we will know what to strive for when ...

Moving on in our series on free motion quilting this week to our next shape, spirals (or hooks). We can really have some fun with this shape. It works for so many quilts. Like a meander, depending on the scale you choose, it can create a fabulous all over edge-to-edge quilting design or a fantastic background fill. Spirals can be used in blocks and borders too. And they are great combined with other shapes to create gorgeous designs.

Looking good

Let’s think about what makes a spiral look good. That way, we will know what to strive for when ...

Let's go back 10 years...

I was having lots of FUN creating

PORTRAIT QUILTS 

5 Easy Free Motion Quilting Designs for BeginnersLearn 5 easy free motion quilting designs. Loops...

Today is the perfect day to learn how to quilt Heart Lines!

Heart Lines free motion design

Since the birth of our daughter Betty, I feel like my heart has tripled in size. Here’s my favorite picture so far of Betty’s beautiful smile:

Baby Betty Day

Quick Links from this free motion quilting tutorial:

Click Here to learn more about my home sewing machine – You don’t need a massive machine to learn free motion quilting. You just need a sturdy machine and a willingness to practice!

Deluxe Foot Set – This set includes two styles of walking feet ...

I hope that this post finds you well. The cooler days and nights are with us, hopefully for a while, and I'm very much enjoy them. I never want summer to end, just because it's always too short, but this heat is nuts and I'm glad that fall is in the air. The leaves haven't changed yet but it won't be long!

We have come a long way from the beginning of this series about free motion quilting. I sure hope you have learned a thing or two along the way. Are you keeping up with your everyday quilting play? I hope that it becomes a life-long habit.

Previous Posts

I’ve heard from several folks who have joined us along the way and missed out on the earlier posts. The list of previous blog posts, shown on the right side of the page, only goes back 5 posts. So I’m going to post some links to previous posts in the ...

We have come a long way from the beginning of this series about free motion quilting. I sure hope you have learned a thing or two along the way. Are you keeping up with your everyday quilting play? I hope that it becomes a life-long habit.

Previous Posts

I’ve heard from several folks who have joined us along the way and missed out on the earlier posts. The list of previous blog posts, shown on the right side of the page, only goes back 5 posts. So I’m going to post some links to previous posts in the ...

Today we’re going to look at how I quilted Whirligig, our latest Stashin’ with Stephanie pattern with an easy loop meander.

This beginner-friendly free motion quilting stitch is great as an all over design. For Whirligig, I wanted something fast, but that I could customize to fit the size of the blocks and quilt the background separately from the print fabrics.

So I loaded the quilt on sideways so I was quilting from top to bottom so I could quilt the entire way across without having to break my thread. Then I quilted the easy loop meander in the ...

Free Motion Quilting, A Love Hate Relationship Do you love machine quilting but have challenges with...

If you’re looking for a very simple, elegant design, you should definitely learn how to quilt Zigzag Path:

Quick Links from this free motion quilting tutorial:

Click Here to learn more about my home sewing machine – You don’t need a massive machine to learn free motion quilting. You just need a sturdy machine and a willingness to practice!

Deluxe Foot Set – This set includes two styles of walking feet, a darning foot, and a ruler foot! These are the feet I use for machine quilting on my Eversewn machine.

I’m also quilting on a Janome 1600 set ...

The Practice of Machine Quilting PracticeHow do you practice machine quilting? Do you use scrap...

Last time we talked about the ubiquitous stipple. I said if the stipple is larger, we often call it a meander. Meander works for quilting entire quilts, edge-to-edge style. It creates good texture, holds the 3 layers together well and is fast and easy. On some quilts it is the perfect choice because the fabrics or piecing carry the design. Like this adorable license plate quilt made by my good friend, Jean Chapman. Jean quilted it on her HQ Sweet Sixteen, stationary machine with an edge-to-edge meander.

License plate quilt by Jean Chapman of North Carolina

detail of license plate ...