Tiffany

Yes, always start with a practice piece to get you into the groove and able to move smoothly and evenly. It also helps the mind get back into the habit of quilting. I will often make extra blocks from the quilt to use as practice pieces for quilting. It works great and I find I can quickly see if the quilting design I chose for the quilt is going to work or not. If it doesn't, then thankfully I learned that with the practice block instead of on the actual quilt. And I can always use the extra, now quilted block in a pillow or something similar if I like it. If not, it goes into a pile that I keep. I look at it occasionally and remind myself of what I tried that didn't work so I don't keep repeating the same mistakes. ;)

A trend I have really begun noticing with machine quilting and longarm quilting, instead of clipping the threads close to the surface of the quilt, many national instructors and those winning ribbons (money) in the big shows are all burying their threads like you would if you were hand quilting. Even the judges are noticing a difference and they prefer the threads buried instead of clipped off, saying it gives the top a more uniform appearance. I would poo-poo what they're saying except that I find my eye does stop along a quilt top at the point where the threads have been clipped, especially if it isn't clipped super close to the top. With all that said, I just wanted to point out that there seems to be a new trend out there that provides another option to simply clipping the threads close to the quilt top.

Whew! Did that seem long winded to anyone else? Wait, don't answer that! :lol:
~Tiffany