Quilting terms
Ok. I'm a tad confused. I'll start by saying I am a hand quilter. Have machine quilted a couple of quilts but just straight line quliting.
My confusion lies in the Free Motion Quilting term. It seems to be interchangeable with Machine Quilting?
I think of 'free motion' as having no particular quilting pattern in mind or result. I think of 'machine quilting' as more of a defined pattern. Am I understanding the terms correctly?
The reason for my question...while I love my hand quilting, I'm considering exploring machine quilting. I'm particularly interested in 'ruler quilting'. I have several UFO's that, frankly, just don't lend themselves to hand quilting - in my mind (NY Beauty for one).
I'm not creative enough to just 'meander' as many of you talented quilters are. Additionally, I'm particularly attracted to very symmetrical quilting designs.
My LQS is offering a ruler class but specifically for Bernina machines/feet/rulers. I don't have a Bernina. I will stop by to see if I can 'monitor' the class to get a feel for ruler quilting but I'm hesitant to invest big bucks in feet/rulers if it's not something that I think I'll like. Obviously practice is necessary to obtain optimum results. With anything.
I don't know if there are other avenues to explore? Any hints, clues, suggestions are very welcome.