kellyer21

I'm working on my first D9P and don't know exactly how to quilt it on my home machine to make it interesting. Any suggestions? I've bought a free motion foot, but haven't used it yet, I'm scared i won't be able to master the art of fmq.

Gay

How about a leaf design, some large some smaller, add a loop or 3. Do some practice pieces first to develop a rythmn, I find it easy flowing. good luck.

citruscountyquilter

I just recently finished a D9P and used an orange peel design to quilt it. The curve was gently enough that I used my walking foot to do it. If you quilt it in rows like a giant serpentine and go one way and then reverse the process and go the other other way crossing over the stitching so the curves face each other and you do it both horizontally and vertically then you end up with an orange peel pattern. I wish I had a picture to show you but I don't. If you google orange peel quilt pattern you will find the shape. I have a tool for making curves but you could also use a plate to mark the curves. I used a water soluble marker to mark the lines to quilt on. There is no turning needed of the quilt by using this method and you don't need to free motion, just use your walking foot.

citruscountyquilter

I have used this pattern to FMQ. I found that it helped to draw the pattern out first on paper to get the feel of it. I actually used parchment paper (like you use for baking) and traced the pattern out on it, pinned it to my quilt and stitched through the parchment paper then ripped the paper off. This pattern is a good one to begin with because it has lots of easy curves and is forgiving. I would not be able to attempt it free hand however to start out.

kellyer21

Thank you, I'll look that up. I've actually thought that something like that would work, just curving the quilt as I feed it through the throat of the machine. I'll let you know what I decide. :-)

kellyer21

I would definitely have to draw whatever design I decide on onto my quilt, I'm not an artist, lol. I can't draw with pencil and paper to save my life, let alone free-hand with a sewing machine.

francie yuhas

I have bad penmanship( I'm a retired doc). My FMQ writing is just like we learned in 2 nd grade!

GailG

francie, your comment cracks me up. I taught penmanship in first and second grades and truthfully, those babies wrote better than when they reached high school.
As for the advice on quilting a D9P -- I don't do FMQ so I did my D9P by cross-hatching diagonally. It worked out well.

I've also tied one and that worked out well too. Good luck.

quiltingbuddy

I just did a regular FMQ meandering pattern to quilt mine and it came out nice. Citruscountryquilter's gentle curves with a walking foot sounds like a good idea too. Good luck with it no matter what you decide. Hope you enjoy the process.