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YES do this, she is great. There is a shell one that looks great I just did my first large one using this and it looks fab! I just practiced a few times on a scrap block and dove right in. It was really easy. I think the meander is hard.Originally Posted by grocifer
Stipple or meandering is not always the easiest design to start with. I can be hard to keep the loops smooth and even. I found it easier to do an all over pattern that had places to rest before the next motif. A good one is stars with loops between them. I put little triangles of masking tape on my quilt top at regular intervals. The triangles were for the center of the simple 5 point stars that we all learned to do in grade school. You just do the star around the tape and do a loop of two over to the next star spot. A simple flower or leaf shape with loops between is easy too. Good Luck!
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Great suggestion Tartan ... I'm more of a visual learner, so by chance would you show us a picture here as to how you do it. I have the idea, though would like to see those tape triangles and how you work around them and onwards to the next. Please? Pretty Please?and with sugar on it (or splenda, if you'd prefer!!)
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Sew many ideas ... just sew little time!!
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Tartan. Love your idea of using masking tape to keep the stars etc. even. I'm going to try it now.
My heart breaks every time I hear of someone starting quilting on a real quilt they intend to keep.
All of the free motion quilt patterns take time and practice. You need to develop a rhythm, a "muscle memory", and a sense of where you've been and where you need to be on the quilt - and do it all at the same time. Equate it to somone leaning how to drive a manual transmission with no lessons and starting them at the top of a mountain pass.
Put scraps of fabric and batting together and practice on those until you are comfortable. I have tons of little scrap sandwiches laying around with practices of this and that motif. If there is a new motif I want to use, I'll practice it 3-4 times or more if necessary, before I attempt to put it on my quilt.
May your stitches always be straight, your seams always lie flat, and your grain never be biased against you.
Sue
I agree with DogHouseMom. PLEASE don't start on a "real" top until you have lots of smaller practice items under your belt. I'm sure that there are one or two naturals out there, but most of the rest of us needed hours and hours of practice before attempting a real quilt.
"I do not understand how anyone can live without one small place of enchantment to turn to."
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
I draw, and draw, and draw, every time I want to learn a new pattern. I use cheap paper and I use a white board. This develops the muscle memory, and really reduces the stress of mistakes.
Sadiemae
I totally agree with the others - practice on something first, scraps that can be thrown away and not ripped out or a dog bed or a present for someone who doesn't appreciate anything anyway, LOL. Don't let your FMQ and the seam ripper get acquainted. I'm not sure whether you're trying stippling or meandering. They're basically the same, except that stippling is very tiny loops that fill up a space so that it is very flat, while meandering is the larger loops that fill up a whole quilt. I don't care much for meandering, and found that swirls, spirals, leaves, etc. were both prettier and more fun to practice with. Good luck.
When I was first learning I found meandering difficult. The pressure to not cross previous lines of stitches and to keep it all even made me tense. (not good for FMQ). I also found doing shapes like stars challenging-hesitating at the tips of points or at corners without stopping too long was not a natural thing for me. I found doing swirls and loops much easier. It didn't matter if I crossed over previous stitching and who hasn't doodled swirly loopys? And, it didn't seem to matter so much when the designs weren't perfectly uniform.
I was my LQS recently and found a panel that had many different quilting patterns printed on the fabric. There was enough of each to give you an idea of how to do them (could be reproduced on different fabrics) and enough variety for almost any quilt. They weren't all basics either. I haven't had a chance to work on it yet, but plan to sandwich with pretty fabric and batting to make a real quilt, then donate to charity. It will be a great practice piece, but still functional when done.
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