treynmama

I think I may have missed something along the way, are most of you doing free motion quilting without marking pattern or are most of them marked? I have practiced on my short arm quilting (New Joy with Brother 1500) and can do circles, leaves and loops without any marking but to actually do a design, I don't think I can. Are they to be marked on the tops first or freehand? If freehand, I guess I need a whole lot more practice. Every quilted piece, top etc that I see here are beautiful, I am very envious.

Sadiemae

People do it both ways. Most of what I do is not marked, but that is just a personal preference. I practice a lot of on paper.

tooMuchFabric

My first quilting system was the same one you have, and I did almost all my quilting freehanded, usually allovers. For actual designs, as you mention, I eyeballed the space that I wanted the design in, and made the design in my mind fit the space.
I also liked to have a drawn or printed image of that design pinned up on the wall where I could see it from my quilting position at the frame, that often helps tremendously.
The advice I've seen from professionals say to practice drawing out on paper what you want to stitch - the drawing practice will translate well when you go to stitch at the machine.
I also started printing out designs of thin paper and pinning or gluesticking the paper on the quilt where I wanted to stitch, then stitch through the paper and tear it away after.
But I always like freehand best I guess.

krisgray

I think the idea is to do it free hand. However, I have never been able draw well free hand so I don't trust myself to do much of anything w/o marking first.

brushandthimble

practice by using a white board and "drawing"
it really does help.

BRenea

I use a lot of very basic templates that I draft to fit the area. For example, I have basic leaf-shaped templates that I mark around and stitch but then fill in the details freehanded. I don't like the process of marking an entire quilt at one time, I prefer to do basic elements and then fill in. Marking (or not) is a personal preference...just do what feels right and works for you!

katier825

I like to draw it on paper, trace it onto Sulky Solvy with Crayola Washable Markers and pin that to the quilt. When done, I remove the large pieces and the rest washes away in the laundry. I'm not really good at staying on the lines, but am getting better.

Jingle

I don't do any kind of designs. I personally think it would waste my efforts as not easy to see with colors and such.
I only do a large stipple, makes quilt softer.
No right or wrong way to do it.

littlehud

When I started FMQ I used stencils and marked my quilts. That helped me so much.