This quilt was made by one of our students, who first started quilting with us and then put in many hours of practice! Free motion quilting is a skill, it can be taught and therefore learned: no one is born a free motion quilter!  ​

Our free motion quilting (FMQ) course is one of our most popular and this week we started off not one, but two classes.  Whilst we're having a welcome coffee we introduce the course structure and give lots of information about needles, threads and various ways on how to deal with T-issues*

To begin with we always first draw out the pattern in a book, on the white board or even on the iPad  because it gives a chance to see where you're going, improves hand-eye coordination and promotes muscle memory, as well as giving you problem solving thinking time - how are/ where are you going to start and stop the pattern etc 

Then it's time to start stitching.  A simple 'head & shoulders' pattern is a great pattern to start with as you have to move up and  down as well as left to right and then as you move down to the row below, right to left.  Start stitching at your default size to begin with and then try going larger and smaller in scale.

Even after all the years we've been stitching, if we haven't free motion quilted for a while we still do this as our warm-up exercise.  It also is a great way to check that your machine is running smoothly and that there are no tension issues.

Wear quilting gloves also helpful when you FMQ as they'll give you extra grip when manoeuvring the quilt sandwich under the needle.  

You may be puzzled by the blog title, but throughout the first day we find students have a tendency to hold their breath as they sew, so we like to remind them: pop your tongue in and....breathe!

If you would like to learn how to  free motion quilt or to improve your technique why not subscribe to our newsletter as we'll shortly be releasing the dates of our next courses?
​
Hazel & Terry

* tension!

This week was the second session of our ever popular Introduction to free motion quilting course.  As well as teaching many different patterns we also share lots of tips and advice  and one of the ones this week was how to finish the thread ends.  ​

One of the easiest way to do this is the lasso method using a large eyed embroidery needle  and a double length of thread.

Push the threaded lasso needle into the work, at the end of the line of stitching.  Go through the top layer, into the wadding but not through to the back.  Travel the needle about an inch and pop it out: do not pull through!  

We made a little video to show you here:

Click on the image below to see the video Subhashini made when I taught it in class! 

Until next week,
Hazel & Terry