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Originally Posted by keesha_ont
Hubby bought me an Inspira frame and Pfaff grand quilter for Xmas. I have been practicing FMQ and am not too bad it. However, I just can't seem to get myself to load a quilt top on it as I'm afraid I'll mess it all up with my quilting. I have about 6 tops to quilt and they are screaming at me to get on the frame!! Could someone please tell me how to get over my fear of quilting these tops before the pile of tops increase significantly.
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Put 2 old sheets together and load them, and then practice, practice, and more practice!!! That's what I would do if I had an awesome husband who bought me that for Christmas!!!
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Jump in, just do it.
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Originally Posted by feline fanatic
I can so relate to your post. I just got my LA this summer. I had one practice sandwich loaded on it and quilted the bejeepers out of that practice piece. I tried all the things I wanted to do on a real quilt, stencils, panto, pebbling, spirals, animal doodles, fm flames, flowers, leaves and vines. By the time I got done with that one yard piece I was really chomping at the bit to load a real quilt top but I too was afraid I might ruin it. My solution was a top that had languished as a UFO for 10, yes I said 10, years. For a top to be a UFO that long I had finally come to the realization that I just didn't like it. So I figured what the heck, I don't like the top who cares if I ruin it. It turned out great! Quilting it made all the difference for me on that top. Still not crazy about the colors but not liking the top gave me the freedom to just go crazy on it and not worry about ruining it. That old UFO gave me tons of confidence and my intimidation of my LA is completely utterly gone. In fact I feel so confident I am quilting someone elses top right now and it is coming out great, well at least I think so. You always have that nagging feeling that your customer may not like it as good as you. Anyway if you don't have a top you don't care about start haunting your local thrift stores or good will. You would be surprised at how often an unfinished top turns up there. You just have to go for it. Here are pictures of that very first quilt I did on my LA. I am now on #3. You can do it and don't be afraid of ruining it. I am sure it will turn out great.
To Intimidated...practice, practice and practice some more. You will know when you are ready. Ditto on the other great advice here. |
Pick up some sheets, and an old blanket at a thrift store, load them up and go to town. When you're done, cut them up into smaller squares and donate to an animal rescue. They'll appreciate them no matter what you quilt on them! Tell yourself = Play, play play, - it's more positive than practise, practise, practise.
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If you say you are not too bad at it after your few practices that you have done, why would it be any worse once you get your quilt on? Keep practicing until you think you could live with the result and then do your quilts. The best part is that it only takes a fraction of the time to quilt the whole quilt on a frame as what it does by other methods, and you are laughing. You'll get better with each quilt.
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I spent a couple of weeks last summer making practice tops out of fat quarters I didn't really care about. Sewed them together,then sliced them apart in rows, turned some of them the other way, sliced another way and turned them again. Some of them I actually liked. I ended up with about 10 practice tops and have gradually worked my way through them, trying out pantographs, groovy boards, free hand, different threads. I did try the muslin, but now I'm stuck with a bunch of muslin "quilts" that aren't good for much. At least with "real" fabric, you end up with something you can either keep or donate.
Something that helped me at first was to trace out the line you want to follow with your finger before you do it with the machine. It helps get over that reluctance to mess up all that wide open space. Like jitkaau said, you'll get better with each quilt, especially if you have another one ready to put on the frame as soon as you finish. |
Originally Posted by moonwork42029
My DH made me a Flynn type frame but I don't have anything to try it out with yet. We're in opposite problems. However....once I do have something finished, I too think I'll be a huge chicken to actually try it. Pock Pock Pock right along with ya.
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Originally Posted by Sapphire_Rae
Originally Posted by amandasgramma
I loaded sheets and cheap batting on mine when I got it. Then I drew the blocks, same sizes and shapes as the first quilt I wanted to make, on the sheets with a Sharpie. I practiced and practiced and practiced and then went for it.........DO it, it's not as bad as you think. AND you can take the stitching out if you REALLY don't like it.
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Make a sample sandwich & put it on the frame & practice some. I went through the same thing & it helped me out alot. I used muslin for the top & back & cotton batting on my sample sandwich.
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