carreen

I bought my Milli in 2007 for just my own quilts, no business. I never thought i'd get good at anything. Last August I took a class from "Doodlebug" on featheres and since then with practice my feathers are GOOD! Darned good, I must say! It just finally clicked and I am doing the happy dance for sure. It is amazing to me that I can do it. Keep practicing and you'll get there too.

Carreen

misoop

I just wondered if you are better at the free motion quilting if you are artistically inclined (as in drawing)? All of these tips are great.....thanks so much. In reference to the pantographs, isn't that as hard to do because of the curves and abrupt changes in direction, etc?

Eddie

To me, the key to doing nice looking pantographs is to not get hung up on following the lines exactly. A video that came with my longarm said that you need to follow the lines as a reference, but don't freak out if you stray off the lines a little - a nice smooth line is much more important than staying exactly on the lines. And don't have a death grip on the machine while doing them, because that will make them more jerky looking. Those two points really helped me to get better and feel more at ease with doing pantographs.

quilt3311

quilting feathers. http://www.patsythompsondesigns.com/ is where I finally learned to master feathers. She has several CD's and that is how I figured it out. And no she is not a relative, just a satisfied customer.

Bobbielinks

I will post some websites later where I purchase quilting patterns, DVD's etc. but now I need to run to granddaughter's basketball game.

Shelley

Practice, Practice, Practice!!! I've had the longarm for just over 3 years now. In addition to more than 100 quilts, I've gone through 3 bolts (60" wide) of muslin for just practicing, and I still pull out the muslin to try new things. I have zippers on my leaders, so I have a practice sandwich on the zippers, and I can quickly try whatever it is that I want to do.

I've found that to get smooth curves I start at my point, visualize the end point and swing. DON'T try to follow a curved line, that's where you get the wobbles. Put on some dancing music, move your feet, get loose!

Have fun! This isn't supposed to be work, even if we're trying to make a living at it!

Enchanted Quilter

I have had my longarm for abt 20+ yrs. Its old but in excellent shape all manual . I started day one w/pantos learned on a Dear Friend machine they bought my own. If you want to do beautiful feathers I agree w/ Twirly Whirly Feathers its an excellent teacher I have books they make dvd. Good luck Just practice practice practice !!!

misoop

I just recently bought "Hooked on Feathers"....right now I'm practicing on paper....tried a little yesterday on LA....didn't look too good, but will try again today.

IrishNY

I'm with Rivka. I just don't care enough to spend lots of time practicing to be really good. I love to piece, to pick out colors, fabrics and create something new. The longarm is because I can't afford to keep sending out all the tops now that I have time to sew more of them than I used to. It lets me make the tops into something functional but that's really all I care about.

Maybe someday when I have more time I will be willing to put the practice into quilting but not now.

amandasgramma

Just a point I want to make here. Others say they buy muslim for practicing. I don't. I go to the thrift stores and buy flat sheets and practice with those. I use batting that's left over from quilts I've made....just about to run out of that though. I've paid as little as $1.00 for a queen size sheet. VERY economical!!!!