How about a little something creative at the cabin. I have been saving this… I don't know why. Here is one of the quilts from my latest book, What a Load of Scraps! called Tumbler Fun. Lots of muted Moda scrap in this one. I decided this time I would free motion quilt all the designs in the book using some doodles. So here is the method I use to pick the patterns.
I like drawing out doodles on paper and playing with them on a white board. For this quilt I laid a piece of acrylic over the top of the quilt and used dry erase markers to make some doodles and see how they changed the look of the quilt. This also gives you a chance to play and practice with the design while you are testing it out. I decided that this design would round out and soften the graphic pattern on the quilt… and would be enough quilting.
Here is a photo of the quilt on the frame. I was having trouble with my machine so I rented some time on an Innova machine at Liz B Quilting. I hand guided this machine and just “doodled” with it.
You can see the design really taking shape here. I think the petals of the flowers… which can sometimes look like dragonflies in the right light… give this quilt a nice soft look.
Here is a snapshot of the corner of the quilt top right after removing from the frame. I laid it over a couple of things to catch the light… it really does lay flat. I promise you. This one turned out really cute. I will show you some of the others too.
This is a great economical way to quilt your quilts if you don't want to pay someone else to do it. You can also do this on a home machine if you are so inclined. Personally I can do without the neck strain… but I did have to do that for a couple of designs in the book out of necessity and it worked fine.
Have any of you quilted with your machine this way? How did it turn out?
~Happy Quilting