JNCT14

Sorry this refers to ssnare's lovely applique quilt!

Deb watkins

STAR, you have outdone yourself. This 'daughter' of mine sent me the most fabulous fabric and a great card for 'mother's day. yes......I am crying.....

bev195000

What a great idea,
Newbie here needs to learn the Americain style of quilting

JNCT14

Is there a difference between American style and UK style? I worked a lot in France, Italy and Scotland 2 years ago and actually quilters in France were kind of rare....but never really encountered anyone who quilted in Scotland (Berrick are if you know it - 1 hour below Edinburgh..)

Quiltbaby

Hi Barb,

If you have not adopted a person, I would love for you to me a mentor of mine.

I am very new at quilting. I have made the tops for two quilts but I really want to learn how to do free motion on my sewing machine and determine if I really want to get the long arm. I look at different long arm machines every night just dreaming. I want to be able to do something when I retire. I want to learn as much as you are willing to share with me.

I watch quilting videos so much. In fact after I finish reading some of the post here, I am going to look for more videos.

I am in the Tennessee area, which is not that far from Mo. I have even thought about driving up to Missouri Star Quilt Company. In the first week of June, I am flying to Keepsakes Quilting to check out their store. I travel a bit and everywhere I go, I try to visit a quilt shop and pick up a unique piece of material.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Quiltbaby- (Shirl)

madelinkk

I am from North Carolina and have attempted to make two quilts. That was more than 20 years ago. I can only machine quilt now. I need all the tips and budgeting ways to quilt in this new age of technology.

JudyG

I am receiving an online newsletter called Quilting Color Magic which has a ton of useful information in it about using the color wheel. Here is a link to the page where you sign up. http://newsletters.drgnetwork.com/
The Quilting Color Magic subscription is down in the middle of the page. It has been very helpful to me.

Judy

ssnare

What does FM mean? What is echo quilting? I want to machine quilt around the edges of the figures and inside the shapes next to the light blue outlines. I do not know what color I should use to do the quilting. I do not know what to use for the dark blue or the wite/blue polka dot borders. How do you pin the bottom layer , the batting and the top print together? How big and what kind of fabric should I use for the batting and the bottom layer? I have more of the light blue and the whie/polka dot material. I want to make a baby quilt to hand tie, also. What kind of thread or yarn do you use to hand tie a quilt. Do you just pull the thread through all the thicknesses and tie a know and leave several inches? Thanks, Sherry

ssnare

Would you like me to send you paper patterns of the shapes? Please tell me about paper piecing. What does this mean and what do you use? Thanks, Sherry

JNCT14

FM - free motion
Echo quilting - exactly what you want to do! All that is, is to quilt around a shape (you can quilt just once around the shape, or several times). The more you echo quilt around the shape, the more you fill in the dark blue areas. Its up to you as to how you want it to look.

Thread color is kind of whatever you want. I like white becasue it can either stand out or fade back, depending on the complexity but color can add a lot to the design - its really up to you. There is no right or wrong method.

Borders as well - no right or wrong method. You can make a curved line design down the border (I use a plate or a glass for the curve), you can just quilt straight lines, either down, or across, you can do a checkerboard....you can even tie it if you want!

Get a quilt book or magazine on methods to sandwich your quilt (bottom, batting and top). I either pin baste (lots of pins to hold the layers together) or I use basting spray to do it. Make sure you are working on a large flat surface so you can smooth the wrinkles (a picnic table, folding table, pool table or the floor work well lol). You may need some basting clips (even the large bobby pins work) to fold the sections of the quilt so you have a small areas at a time to work on. A walking foot for your machine is IMMENSELY helpful and worth the money.

Tying a quilt can be done many ways..you can tack it down with a few stitiches and knot on the bottom, I use 3 threads of embroidery floss and knot them on the top leaving about 1 inch ends, I know people who use yarns (I find that too thick) - I have even heard of dental floss! Anything goes. When tying, you do want to tie about every 2 inches to sandwich the layers well.

Hope this helps..........