I bought the book "Machine Quilting Made Easy" by That Patchwork Place. It is set up in exercises #1-14. A friend needed more fabric to finish a quilt, so we visited my favorite Mennonite shop yesterday. She has some "Ohio" fabric for $3.00/yard!! :shock: I bought some white and white for practice squares. I cut it up into 14 inch squares and even have the batting prepared. it's some old stuff that required 1/4-1/2 inches between quilting. Made me laugh. WHY would anyone use it??? :roll: :lol:

So--my goal for the summer is to learn, well at least practice, as much as I can. My machine has a short throat so wall hangings, maybe lap quilts are my goal. The bigger stuff will still go to the quilter. But if I would do a good job on sutff 40" square and less, I'll be happy.

Aren't you proud of me? :D

Hmmm....I'm thinking a trip to Amazon.com is in order.
Wouldn't mind getting that book. I'll have to check it out.
Hubby won't mind. It's NOT fabric! lol

Proud of you? Of course I'm ALWAYS proud of you!
Now, send me Rosie and I'll say anything else you like. lol

Terri--you would be the perfect owner for Rosie--I know she'd be loved every minute. But let's wait till you get back to the states to make the sale--I just can't bear to picture her alone and afraid on the journey there. I'll have yearlings for you to choose from then too--you can't have one horse, they are herd animals. So you'll have to choose two. :wink:

Dang we are so bad at getting off topic. The admin is going to get mad. :oops:

hehe...I know...

Ok, quickly change the subject.......

So, you don't machine quilt your quilts? Meaning, if they are big, you send them out, I understand that, but lap size, you hand or machine yourself? Or, you have just been muddling thru like me and now you are going to learn how to do it the "right" way?

I've machine quilted--in the ditch only--several items. But I hate it. I hate puckers. For some reason I think stippling will be easier? Or some other designs. To me the quilting's purpose is just to hold the sandwich together. I admire the art jobs, but I don't long to have them on my projects. I've also hand quilted items (garden wall hanging in my library was the biggest)--but that was before I got smart and machine quilted. I have WAAAAY too many ants in my pants to hand quilt for long. :roll: I do love to sew on a binding though.

So--I want to do a nice job on smaller stuff.

ok, after you get all those squares quilted and can't figure out what to do with them - make a rag quilt...

I always have homespun squares prepared (sandwiched) so I can practice an idea, check tension, try a new-old machine, etc etc...
When I have a big pile (hmmmm.... I'm thinking I DO have a big pile) I put them together with seams on top and make a rag quilt - I do take those to the laundromat for washing/drying because of all the ravels.... (that's AFTER the squares are put together - do NOT wash the individual squares)

Some of the squares are really strange looking with some whacky quilting but that's ok....

Just remember, the machine goes fast.... you don't....
if you move the sandwich too fast you'll get those ugly tension looking things on the back - ask me how I know :roll:

I always plan on doing something really fancy but then wind up just meandering.... :(
maybe 'one of these days'....

I have a good friend who does beautiful piecing and she had 'hired out' the quilting - so she was showing off the finished quilt and imagine our shock and amazement :shock: when people were assuming that the other woman had done the WHOLE quilt - they were telling Margie what a great job the longarm quilter had done - but they were talking about the WHOLE quilt and not just the quilting....

One of the main reasons I'd rather 'just' meander and do it all myself... that plus the fact that I can't afford to many farmed out quiltings...
At least when I say, "I made it", I really did....

I do very simple, edge-to-edge machine quilting, but to me, the actual quilting is just a necessarily evil - something that has to be done before I can get the binding on (fun) and cut out the NEXT quilt! I'm like you, Barnbum, I don't care about all the elaborate quilting patterns - just something nice, neat and functional, and on to the next project!

I think you have a great plan barnbum and I'll be cheering you all the way. I pretty much learned the way you're planning to. Practiced and practiced ad nauseum until I finally felt I could do it on a real quilt. Actually, I pretty much did one "real" quilt before I practiced so much, and it was awful LOL, so I decided I needed to get more comfortable working on smaller sections at first.

I just started by making loops and meandering and before too long I got confident and added more designs along with those two. Just have some fun with this!! You can do it, and you can do it well. I know you can.

I love the idea of putting them all together into a quilt later on. Wish I'd thought of that. You'll be able to document your progress that way.

And I'm very proud of you for trying this. I really hope you come to enjoy it a lot. You'd be surprised how much bulk you can fit under a small throat once you get some confidence in what you're doing. The machine I started on before I got the Juki has a mere 6½" throat, and not very tall and I was able to get bed sized quilts underneath, half at a time.

Good luck and I can't wait to see your work! :)

Thanks for your encouragement, ladies. :D

Janeen--I have made so many ragged flannels--and have stacks of sqaures ready... and I even tried practicing on some. But I decided they were really too small (7") to get a lot done, and I wanted to save them for give aways. We were thinkiing alike. :-)

The fabric I have wouldn't make a pretty quilt. It's white on white and will have random quilting on it--as each 14" square is divided into 9 smaller squares to practice. Maybe a dog bed. :lol:

Barnbum,

I have been learning how to machine quilt, just like you are starting, and I found that 18" square was a better size, purely because before you know it you have got into the rhythm and you have filled up the practice piece, so I made mine bigger, another tip, when you have filled it with one colour of thread, change your top thread and go over all what you have already done - you can do this several times.

I made doggy bed covers with my practice pieces heres one...excuse the state of it, I just whipped it off Sashas bed!! :D :shock:

Izy! You've got it!! Bravo for the fanciest dog bed ever!! :D

I did leave several at 18+ inches because I pictured what you said happening.

I have so many projects going and planned--I'm overwhelmed. :shock:

Well you gotta use em for something, after all that hardwork.....lol!! :D

I use to feel the same way before I got my Hinterberg stretch frame. Now,
I look forward to the actual quilting process. It put the fun in quilting for me. I'm still in the learning stages and pretty much just do meandering but I find it very relaxing and enjoyable.

Desertdebbe
www.phpbbserver.com/quiltangels

You go Barnbum you are more couragousthat I am. Good luck!!!!

That practice piece is absolutely beautiful! Good job. Now, has anyone tried using the Pfaff Fabric Mover on their standard machine? I bought one but have been too busy to play with it yet. Maybe this summer when life gets simpler. Anyways, The Pfaff Fabric Mover can be used on any standard machine, but if you happen to have a Pfaff you can also buy a stitch regulator to go with the fabric mover. It is supposed to make free motion quilting smoother and easier. Supposed to cut the learning curve in half. I did a store demo before purchasing and I think it is a very ingenious accessory, especially for new machine quilters like myself. Check it out at www.pfaff.com