Easy Damask Pattern for Free Motion Quilting
Hullo again. Nosotros take been discussing heaps of things to do with ruler quilting in the final couple of articles. The last article explored how to combine ruler work with complimentary-motion designs. This effect I am going to show you lot how to brand those elementary free-motion shapes to use with your ruler work or on their own.
First, a reminder on the things to consider when starting free-motion quilting
There are a few things to think about before y'all commencement:
- Brand sure you are comfy and that the infinite effectually your machine is tidy, so you lot practise not continue bumping into things.
- Have a squeamish flat surface to quilt on, and so the quilt flows well and does not get caught upwards.
- Create a exercise sandwich to use before y'all go into your real project; information technology'southward bully for checking tensions, stitch length and myriad other things. You lot do not need to unpick a practice piece!
- Consider wearing quilting gloves for a proficient grip of the quilting sandwich, without straining your easily.
- When you brainstorm, use a thread with a little dissimilarity so you lot can come across it, but not so much that all your mistakes smooth brightly.
- Always use good-quality needles and threads, even when you are practising.
Gear up for quilting
- If you are working on a sit down-downwards or domestic car, set up up your machine with your costless-motion foot or ruler foot, extension table and a slip mat. The advantage of using your ruler foot is that you tin change styles of quilting without changing your human foot. Experiment with what you lot take got.
- Put on your gloves if you use them to quilt.
- For a frame quilting machine, load your sandwich to the machine as you would a normal quilt.
- Wind bobbins and set threads.
- Ensure the automobile is threaded correctly.
- Using the do sandwich, or edge of your quilt, test tensions and move/stitch length.
Steps to stitching out free-motion quilting designs
For every new design you lot try, follow these three steps:
Step 1: Cartoon out your design tracing with a pen
- Draw out your design on a piece of newspaper.
- Cover that design in a piece of template plastic, vinyl, or a page protector. This means you tin trace over the lines with a white board maker many times. Just trace, wipe off and repeat.
- The fundamental to the tracing process is to keep your pen down on the plastic without lifting information technology off. If you think about information technology, every fourth dimension you lift the pen information technology is the equivalent of cutting your thread. This would mean more ends to sew in and the design not flowing freely.
- Always trace at the abiding speed that you lot would be quilting at, not jerking or speeding up and slowing down. Over again, when you lot are stitching, this would lead to short and long stitches.
- The whole point of this step is to smooth out your hand movements, so do not blitz it. If y'all are getting a bit lost down the rail when yous are stitching, go back to this step to become your motion smooth again.
Stride 2: Stitch out the design on a practice piece
- Information technology is always worth testing out a design before you stitch it out on the master quilt. This is practising the motion, but also you might find that you do not similar it stitched out and y'all can then choose some other design.
Pace 3: Sew out the designs on your concluding piece
- By repeating the process on your final piece, you are reinforcing the skills yous accept learnt.
- You lot volition as well find that you may be stitching on a larger piece, so you will need to control the quilt sandwich as you quilt.
- I find pushing the excess quilt into the harp of the machine works ameliorate than rolling the quilt into a log. The quilt is far easier to manoeuvre.
- Outset in the center of the quilt. The centre of the quilt will always exist the hardest to work with, but it gets easier equally you get out to the borders.
- Never stitch down the edges of the edge earlier quilting as this volition ordinarily outcome in puckering and bunching at the edge as the quilt is spread out at the edges from the center.
Unproblematic quilting designs
Loops and circles
- It is best to continue your movement steady and reasonably fast for smooth circles.
- Alternate the direction the loops come from the meander line, otherwise they await like they are hanging in a row.
- When completing double or more than loops, start at the outside loop then that you know how much space the design is going to take upward.
- Vary the number of loops and the size of loops for involvement.
- Bigger loops are harder to keep circular than smaller ones.
- To keep your loops circular, be sure to continue your loop to make a full circle before going off onto a meander again.
Pebbles
- Everyone loves the expect of pebbles, but they require practice to brand them look expert.
- Pebbling is ordinarily washed at a faster automobile speed to allow for menses.
- Sew together length is normally smaller for rounder shapes. A long stitch will issue in hexagons!
- Pebbling is time-consuming.
- Mix up the sizes for a design that is pleasing on the heart and less catchy to execute.
- Extend the design by calculation a swirl inside some of the pebbles, back-filling the infinite between the pebbles and adding echo lines to break up the surface area of pebbles.
- Make some of your pebbles appear to be behind each other for interest.
- Avert crossing over previous pebbles by travelling back along a pebble to a betoken where a whole pebble can exist fabricated. Small-scale triangles and other shapes are left between the pebbles.
Swirls
- Swirls are very versatile designs that piece of work well in varying sizes, from very small to large meanders.
- Consummate the exterior first, allow room to come out and on change of direction become inside and so that the first exterior swirl stays the outside swirl.
- The farther in you go, the closer the spiral will exist.
- When extending the swirl design, add different echo shapes that take you lot to different parts of the quilting area. This is also helpful for irresolute directions. Do this frequently for interest.
Flowers
- I accept saved my favourite to last.
- When choosing a flower design, information technology is often best to stick to merely one or two styles and to vary their size.
- Flowers unremarkably have odd numbers of petals, just do non worry too much if some take five — some accept six! Variety is the key to this style of quilting.
- I do my flowers past drawing random circles around the quilt in varying sizes. The size will vary depending on the calibration of your project. This method works for any flower size.
- Divide each circle into five sections.
- Quilt each petal of the flower within a segment. This gives you lot an outside boundary for the petals and makes them uniform.
- Travel to the next blossom with a meander line. When you are stitching the meander lines, be sure to travel along the border of a petal, not through the middle.
I hope you relish quilting these designs. When you lot go good at quilting them in a small calibration, try them out in larger sizes that you tin can use as all-over designs for your quilts. Remember, do non give yourself a hard time, it takes practise.
As my proverb goes, "Do it once it's a fault, do it twice information technology'southward a design." Adjacent time we will take these shapes a step further and use them and others to create groundwork designs that are unique to you and your quilts.
Until and so,
Happy quilting
Anita
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Source: https://www.cosyproject.com/blog/domestic-machine-quilting-simple-free-motion-designs/