Free motion styles
 

Hi. I'm planning to begin free motion quilting. I'm very intimidated by the idea. Partly because I really really want to learn this skill!
I was wondering if you all could give me some tips, and what fm designs you like, and what is good to start with. I love the look of peebles. If you could post some up-close pictures that would be great!
Thanks

Here are a few that I like. They're good for practicing control. I also practiced writing my name. It was a pattern already ingrained in my mind so I could concentrate on coordination of speed and hand motion.

Here's another

I just finished a 3-day workshop with Ricky Tims, and something he said really struck a chord with me. He said we are not born knowing how to quilt, the same as we are not born knowing how to write. Someone had to put a pencil in our hands and teach us how to write the letter A. Then we had to practice writing the letter A over and over. Then we were taught to write the letter B, and practice it over and over, and so on.

Keep this in mind when you start quilting. I think too many of us start quilting and expect it to look good right off the bat. Circles can be rather difficult, it takes practice to get them round and even - if you WANT round and even. Sometimes you discover you prefer wonky and oval! But just get started quilting and practicing. If you don't like them, keep at it, you'll get better. Don't give up, don't get discouraged, laugh, have fun, drink a glass of wine and relax as you quilt.

lots of good sources on the internet--besides Lori Kennedy, check out Leah Day, Angela Walters and Amanda Murphy, to start with. Youtube has some great videos to show how to do these. Make up lots of practice sandwiches and start. It takes a while to get the hang of it--and even after you feel comfortable with quilting projects, most of us find that before we start something very involved, we still pull out that practice sandwich and practice first.

Here are a couple of things I have learned. Straight lines are HARD. The longer they are the harder they are. Stick with curves to begin with.

This is counter-intuitive, but try not to go too slow. When you slow down too much, every hesitation shows up in your stitches. Try to go at a medium, consistent speed.

Other than that, just practice, and enjoy they process of learning.

Fillers: http://leahday.com/pages/quilting-design-gallery
Motifs/Borders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnAriXmGjPA

If you do pebbles, just make sure they are at least 1" in diameter (preferably bigger) or the thread build up will cause the quilt to become stiff & heavy (ask me how I know).

On my first quilt (44x56" crib) I did a basic curvy 1.25" meander in the center with a leafy vine in the border and a triple leaf in each corner. I picked a white Aurifil 50wt/2ply thread so it would blend in with the background. In the border, I used a variegated blue Aurifil 50wt/2ply thread. I had become pretty decent at FMQ by the time I reached the borders & wish I'd picked a thread that could have shown off my skills. I now use Aurifil 40wt for most quilting & occasionally even add in a 28wt thread if I really want to show off. :)

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My biggest piece of advice is to keep it simple! There are plenty of us that could post lovely pictures of fancy feathered wreathes & scrolling vines & whatnot, but I suggest you work up to doing those things. I remember an online video I watched that said if you can quilt the lowercase letters c, s, "cursive e", o, v & upper/lowercase l, you can pretty much FMQ any design because most designs are just a combination of those. For example, feathers are a combination of a c & a v. Swirls are a large c that comes to an inner point (v) and then returns back as a smaller c. Unless you're planning on making competition quilts, FMQ really isn't that difficult. About 8 hours of practice & you should be able to stitch out a number of different beginner designs. The more you practice, the easier it gets. Also, I always mark my designs on quilt tops before I layer my sandwich. It gives me a rough idea of where I want my stitches to land so I can focus entirely on stitch formation rather than dividing my attention.

i really enjoy free motion quilting.
if you practice on fat quarter sandwiches you will have enough room to move around but no bulk to deal with
it is much easier to stitch things that you are really comfortable doodling, maybe little heart shapes or maybe written e's
pebbles can be a bit tricky because you need to stitch back over part of your line at some point but circles on a string might be an easier way to start (like on quiltsRfuns cute orange bag)
unlike bree123 i find marking makes it very difficult for me to get nice stitches but then i could never colour in the lines either
play music you like and relax

One of my favorite and easiest things to think of is, puzzle pieces. You know the locking pieces, just glide from curve into curve. Another hint that a friend told me that makes it so much easier is to quilt to the side or backwards whenever possible. When we sew, the sewn piece goes to the back of the machine. When you free motion, if you place the quilted part to the side with the unquilted part to the machine, you can see where to go next. But my favorite is when you have the quilted part toward you so you can see how far to swoop.