Beginner Free Motion Quilting

Are you interested in free motion quilting and unsure how to get started?

  On Wednesday, April 24, 2019 I will be offering a full-day workshop entitled, Free Motion Quilting For the Absolutely Terrified, here in Amherst, N.S.  We will cover the basics of free motion machine quilting including needle and thread selection, basting, batting, and machine tension.  Sample squares will be stitched with various techniques including stippling and meandering, following a marked line, echo quilting, and background fillers. We will then apply what we have learned to mark, baste, and free motion quilt the miniature whole cloth pictured above. Many quilts will be shown for inspiration.

There is no pre-requisite for this beginner free-motion class, however you need to be comfortable with your sewing machine; this is beginner free-motion, not beginner sewing. You will need to bring a sewing machine in good working order, capable of dropping, or covering, the feed dogs for free motion stitching. The class will run from 9 am to 3 pm and will cost $75.00 + HST. 

It will be a small class, and there are only a couple of spots available, so if you are interested, please email me asap.

Last Call!

Tomorrow begins a new month - a super busy month! - so today is "last call" for students to sign up for the Beginner Feathers workshop at this year's Nova Scotia Fibre Arts Festival.  There are two spots left. Below is the sample we will stitch:

You will be provided with various weights of beautiful Aurifil thread so that you can see the effects each has.  I am particularly fond of stitching with the 12 weight:

There is more information and a registration button on this page. Come join us, for a very relaxed, no pressure class.

This week, in preparation for the festival, I will be setting up a display of my Island Batik quilts in a downtown store window.  I am also putting in the last touches for my October Ambassador project, beginning to get November's underway...as well as working on a project for Quilt Market. Later this week, a big order of Aurifil thread is arriving...and somewhere in there, is a Thanksgiving meal to prepare! (The pumpkin pie was such a disaster last year, I am not sure anyone wants me to try that again...:) Thankfully, I quilt better than I bake...

2018 Nova Scotia Fibre Arts Festival

Although the list of workshops is not as yet posted on the festival site, I have started taking registration for the two classes I will be teaching this year at the Nova Scotia Fibre Arts Festival.  Both involve free motion quilting. 

On Thursday, October 11, 2018,  I will be offering my very popular beginner class.  Entitled, "Free Motion Quilting for the Absolutely Terrified", the class is about confidence building. We start at the beginning with how to adjust thread tension (both top and bottom), learn about needle selection, thread delivery, marking, and lots more.  

 It's all about getting comfortable with your domestic machine, and with the process.

Our project for the day is a very simple whole cloth, which features following a marked line, echoing, and background fillers. 

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The second class I am offering is "Beginner Feathers".  Note that this is a beginner feather class, NOT a beginner free motion class.  This workshop will be held on Friday, October 12, 2018, from 9 am to 3 pm.  It will cover instruction for 3 different approaches to creating free motion feathers:  easy, bump, and hook. 

  Once you've decided on your favourite feather stitching method, we'll do all-over feathers, for a fabulous background fill. 

The class project will be a small whole-cloth, featuring a wreath and some feathery swirls.

You can find more information on both classes here,as well as a link for online registration.  These classes are limited in size.  If you have questions, email me here. 

Another Free Motion Workshop Project

A lovely completed project from my "Free Motion Quilting For The Absolutely Terrified" workshop in Paradise, NS. This was stitched by Frances Veinot, who certainly added lots of artistic flair to her background. Way to go, Frances!

Learning By Teaching

Although the days fly by, sometimes there isn't a lot to show at the end of each.  I've been working on stitch samples for an upcoming free motion quilting workshop.  Even though I have taught this class many times before, each one is new and different;  you can't just dial it in. You learn as you go what works and what doesn't...or as Bob Seger sings in Against the Wind, "what to leave in, what to leave out." I have one more filler stitch to settle on...and it may be just an echo. Or a scroll.  Or S lines...

For sure, we will be doing continuous curve quilting;  it's my favourite go-to stitch as it's so versatile. Whether you use it to quickly quilt squares, or as a background pumpkin-seed filler, it's a stitch every free-motion quilter should have in their repertoire. I piece scraps, and dig out orphan blocks, as I've learned that demos done on actual patchwork, not just plain cotton, give a more concrete understanding of the application.

I've decided to do clam shells, even though I usually avoid them in my own work.  (Imagine a gal from Five Islands not being a fan of clam shells! :)

This is my arsenal of feet, amassed over years of quilting, progressing from left to right.  When I started doing free motion on my old Kenmore, there was no foot available.  I used a spring needle (shown on the left). I was delighted to finally find a short-shank foot that fit my machine. Bernina has lots of fabulous feet for their machines. My newest acquisition - the ruler foot - is on the far right. See how thick it is?  That's so it won't slip under the ruler and damage your machine. It's made curved cross-hatching very doable on my domestic machine. I hope to be able to show you some of that soon.

For now, it's back to deciding on that final stitch to fill the last square on my sampler.  What would you choose?

Aurifil Stitching Demo

Beth, at Mrs Pugsley's Emporium,has kindly invited me in to display and demo Aurifil thread.  So I stitched up this sweet little blue and white quilt, and will take my machine and quilt this in the shop next Friday, February 5.

I'll show you the effect of using different weights of thread for your quilting.

I will have a variety of Aurifil threads for sale, and will be happy to answer any questions you may have about free-motion quilting.  Mrs Pugsley's Emporium is located at 50 Victoria Street, Amherst, NS, right across the street from the downtown Tim Horton's.  I will be there Friday from 10-3.

 

A Little of This, A Lot of That

There isn't much of interest to share from my quilting world;  for the last little bit it's been preparing for workshops, packaging pattern orders, and brain-storming new ideas for designs and teaching. Some days it all goes in circles and you end up back where you started. I've also been playing with threads, and exploring possibilities which hadn't before occurred to me.  This is a white/silver grey Aurifil variegated I bought to use on the Hoffman Challenge quilt.  Even though I won't be stitching it on white, I wanted to see how it looked in a feather.  I think it will be fabulous on the challenge fabric.

I picked up new 12 weight thread at Mrs. Pugsley's Emporium, and each spool came with a fun thread wrap.

The wrap will not only keep the thread ends tidy, but will also keep the dust off.  Sewing rooms generate a lot of dust...or at least mine does (!).

I didn't do anything too serious with the thread...yet;  it's all still in the thinking stages, but it's got the potential to be a really fun workshop.

The weather has been beautiful - it's supposed to go up to 12 degrees today! - and the snow in the backyard has gone down significantly in the past few days. This shot was taken a few minutes ago, and the back of the bench is now exposed.  Last week it was covered.

For my friend in "Upper Canada" tending her seedlings, here's a shot of our garden which is just to the left of the picnic table.  I don't think there will be fresh rhubarb for awhile yet...it's still about two feet under snow...but we're optimistic!

Hopping Along With The Spring Hare

We are hopping right along with the runner in the Spring Hare collection.  The piecing is complete and I had fun choosing threads for the quilting.  I am by no means a thread snob - I love it all, and have a huge variety of weights, colours and brands on hand.  The bobbin thread is a 100 weight (i.e. very fine) Wonderfil Invisifil.  For the quilting, I chose 5 different colours:  a pink/cream variegated by Sulky, a solid yellow Konfetti by Wonderfil, a pale blue cotton Gutermann, a silver/white Aurifil variegated, and a green variegated Gutermann which I've had since Moses was a baby. That Gutermann was the first time I had seen variegated sewing thread in a store, and in my excitement, I bought all of it, in all the colourways - the entire thread display!  It was my first experience hoarding thread...(sadly not my last...:))  I have two spools of the green left, and one of a Christmas red/white/green.  It was a well-loved investment!

I picked up this pink Sulky at The Quilt Gallery in O'Leary last summer and have been itching to use it.  It has the perfect blend of shades from dark pink to cream to work with the blades in the fan blocks.

It was a tad heavier than the rest - a 30 weight - but I liked the effect.  It was like embroidering small scrolls.

Because of all the variation in thread thickness between my top and bobbin threads, it was necessary to adjust the top tension with each thread so that my stitches were perfect.  I am always amazed at how reluctant students are to do this!  For the 30 weight pink thread, I had to call on the bobbin case's secret weapon - I call it a stitch finger, I have no clue what it's really named.  Not all machines have one, but if they do, it's a wonderful help to proper tensioning.  You can see I've simply run my bobbin thread through the tiny hole at the top of the finger before inserting the bobbin back in the case.  It tightens up the bottom thread just a tiny bit - way easier than moving the screw.  

The quilting is almost finished up, so I will show you the rest soon.

Mea Culpa

Late last September, I taught a class in beginner free motion quilting at Mrs Pugsley's Emporium. Shortly thereafter, I received a picture from Gail Baker of Sackville showing off her completed class sample.  I didn't post it right away because I wanted to include a picture of  something Gail gave me at the workshop, and set it aside for the next day.  The next day came and went, and then the next...and then there was Fibre Arts Festival,,,and then there was catch-up...and book edits...and Christmas and...well, it just never got done.  My sincerest apologies, Gail.
So, FINALLY, here is Gail's lovely work.  She did a particularly nice job on the centre section which is really quite tiny.

And here's what Gail gifted me with in class.  Can you believe this??  Yes, it's toilet paper, upon which Gail has embroidered!  I've never seen anything like this before.  My all-male household has been warned within an inch of their lives not to use this!!

Gail has a sticker on the bottom which gives a website address, and I see she takes custom orders for these.  You can check it out here.
Thank you Gail for sending along the picture...and for being so patient with me!

Workshop Notice

Laptop Bag quilted by Heather Olmstead 

Two spots have opened up in the Free Motion Quilting For The Absolutely Terrified on September 13, 2014 in Amherst, Nova Scotia.  If you are interested, please email.