QUILTsocial | Issue 10

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»» The design you’re trying to copy won’t work for you! You must take that design as an inspiration and adapt it so it works for you. Someone might be able to do tiny little circles and your circles might end up looking like ovals. That’s OK – that’s your style. Don’t try to fight it – let your style develop instead of trying to force something. Once you’re comfortable with your style, then you can start to learn new things. »» Take the style and figure out how you can modify it to get a new look. What if you lengthen or widen the marks? What if you adjust the height within the same area (like a triangle)? What if you add a small loop between your main components? If you look carefully at the professional quilters, they do this all the time. It broadens their repertoire without requiring them to learn a whole lot of new styles! I had a quilt to quilt recently and I wasn’t sure what to quilt in the blocks. The block had been designed using a computer software program. The block was 6'' and I was able to print out an outline of the block onto paper. I then took a pen and tried different ways of “quilting” the block. You’ll notice how rough my doodling is – it’s horrible in fact. I didn’t really care as I was trying a couple of things. Does the design that I’m trying even flow so that I can complete one block without stopping? That’s very important – no one wants to spend a lot of time starting and stopping! I was also looking for issues – like the bottom left corner – should that have a mitered design or not? The block represents a flower and I tried multiple designs in each block to see which I liked best. Often I find that the vision we have in our head doesn’t always translate well to the real thing. That is why this doodling exercise is so important. Doodling attempts in a 6'' flower block Below is an example of whether the bottom left corner should be mitered or not? If I was going to miter it, then this is where a registration line would be helpful so I would be reminded visually to miter the design. Should I miter the design in the corner? It would be a tad easier to see if the block were colored, but I’m using the sections of the block as my reference lines. No need for marking and no need for registration marks, unless I decide I need something in that bottom left. Same design, different direction and some of the potential background quilting And yet another option And another Q 50 .com| issue 10 UILTsocial Same design in the two sections
One more option with a few sashing options added at the bottom Let’s not forget that you can do the same exercise for sashings and borders. If it helps, draw lines on your page to represent the width of your sashing or border. Don’t forget to figure out how to deal with the corners and the intersections. The beauty is that there is NO right or wrong about any of this. It’s what you want, what you like and what you have the skill for. There are no quilt police and friends/ acquaintances who make comments – well – we just won’t go there. Options for the inner border The back of my quilt with the flower blocks Here’s another very important thing. Once you’re relatively happy with the design, you may want to do a couple more on paper as if you were really quilting them. In other words, make them a teeny bit neater. You can move from the beginning to the end of the block and perhaps even on to the next block without breaking the thread – a huge time saver! Here’s a picture of what the quilting actually ended up looking like on the right side. The quilt is called Birds of Paradise and was featured with full instructions in A Needle Pulling Thread Issue 45. Then I’d go to the sewing machine and I’d stitch out a few of them on some scrap fabric (practice quilt sandwiches). Can you translate all that practice on paper to the machine? If you “quilted” with the pen several times, it should be way easier to do this on the fabric sample. Once you’re comfortable with it, then it’s time to get to the quilt. Really? Do I have to do all that prep work before? Yep – it’s better to do all that prep work than spending hours and hours ripping out! Depending on the design, I can spend a lot of time prepping before I ever touch the sewing machine! Who knew? Do you feel a little more comfortable now? This prep work is not just for beginners. It’s for everyone who is learning something new or trying to understand how the logistics of getting from A to B will work with minimal stops and starts. PS – keep that clipboard handy so when you have a few minutes of downtime (put DOWN your phone), you can doodle! Q UILTsocial .com | issue 10 51
Page 1 and 2: Q .c ISSUE10 UILTsocial …eat, sle
Page 3 and 4: editor's letter How well do you kno
Page 5 and 6: QUILTsocial issue 10 c o n t e n t
Page 7 and 8: hooked on books Free-Motion Meander
Page 9 and 10: Version 2 - vertical sections For t
Page 11 and 12: 1 essential tip for sewing together
Page 13 and 14: Continue to slice, and add sashing
Page 15 and 16: Embroidery foot for THE Dream Machi
Page 17 and 18: Machine embroidery 101 on THE Dream
Page 19 and 20: Stitch in the ditch for added accen
Page 21 and 22: Press the triple-stitch line and th
Page 23 and 24: As you’re cutting each piece, pla
Page 25 and 26: With a pencil, draw a diagonal line
Page 27 and 28: The opening of the red circle is hi
Page 29 and 30: Place colored fabrics squarely on t
Page 31 and 32: makes quick job of half square tria
Page 33 and 34: I’m a bit of a needle snob. I’l
Page 35 and 36: Once all my decorative stitching wa
Page 37 and 38: 37
Page 39 and 40: What colors inspire you? BOLD BASIC
Page 41 and 42: For this project I’m using fusibl
Page 43 and 44: I switched to the variegated thread
Page 45 and 46: Straight Stitch Plate 2 This Straig
Page 47 and 48: Two spools of Wonderfil thread and
Page 49: Leaf shape with a boring straight l
Page 53 and 54: Thread blends into the motif and th
Page 55 and 56: In the next sample you can see the
Page 57 and 58: Think about it - you’re new to qu
Page 59 and 60: Quilted snowflakes And here’s my
Page 61 and 62: Canada’s most trusted notions bra
Page 63 and 64: In the big scheme of things, the co
Page 65 and 66: Dual Duty XP® combines superior st
Page 67 and 68: quilting Brother NQ900 Embroidery,
Page 69 and 70: 9. Pin quilt sashing strip in place
Page 71 and 72: quilting skill level intermediate f
Page 73 and 74: skill level intermediate finished m
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Page 77 and 78: don't miss these projects & tutoria
Page 79 and 80: Your quest for the best stops here.

QUILTsocial | Issue 10

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