Classes at AQS Show in Des Moines

"The Fine Art of Echo Quilting" ~ Warm-up exercise

My classes in the upcoming AQS show in Des Moines Oct. 3-6 are almost filled.  Thanks everyone for signing up, and I hope you will love what I have to share with you about machine quilting on a home sewing machine.

The photo above shows one of our warm-up exercises for echo quilting to get you comfy and ready to do some more challenging quilting.

Sometimes these warm-ups turn out so well students have gone on and used them in quilts, with pretty threads, as focal point quilting.  Some have expanded them to fill entire spaces around other designs as wavy, lyrical background quilting instead.  Once you get the hang of even echoes and even stitches, it's fun and easy to do this.

Remember, don't "lazy susan" or turn your quilt sample, even if it is small enough to do so.  You'll be at a loss when you quilt a larger quilt in a home machine and cannot turn it.  It's best to learn right from the start to quilt in all directions, deal with the visibility problems you face in a home sewing machine, learn to adjust machine speed so you don't overshoot or make mistakes in blind spots.  And there will always be blind spots.

This little sample is not perfect, lines are not perfectly spaced, it was done in a class as a demo. You don't have to have perfection to create something beautiful and unique. Instead of making a new sample to show you here that would be a bit better, I used this one so you will feel confident about class, and look forward to coming and exploring quilting with me.

There are a few openings left in "It's Bananas," a 3-hour class that will focus on this design, below, that many have tried from my Quilt Savvy book.  If you want to perfect it, get it to look its best, this class is for you. 

Beautiful Bananas

However, it is also for those of you who simply want to improve all your quilting designs, as much of what I will share with you is what I've learned over the years working with so many talented quilters who have taken my classes.  These important things will be included in all my classes to help you improve your own free motion quilting, be more at ease and more confident.  I want you to love your own quilting.

To register for this class, go to this weblink at AQS.

Fall is in the air here finally and quilting is as well.  I'm packing my teaching samples, preparing handouts, and planning my trip to Des Moines.  I hope to see many of you there, even if you aren't in my class, please say hi.

Keep quilting!  Your work gets better every day,
Diane

Feathers Everywhere

I hope you've been enjoying quilting feathers!  Here is a photo of a portion of a quilt, "Twilight Rhythms," that contained lots of feathers, flowers quilted with the echo feather technique, and backgrounds on a hand dyed sateen.  The largest feathers are about 5" long, and the tiny ones are tiny. 

Once you learn the shape, and the spacing technique with the line of echo quilting, just about any non-continuous line design can be quilted this way.  Leaving a small space and echoing the line, then echoing the entire design gives it a tailored, finished look.

Here the flowers are quilted with the technique, as could be leaves, pinecones, sunflowers, whatever you choose that has petal shapes or parts hat all unite to form a unit.  The echo lets you travel to the next shape.

My sewing machine has been getting a tune-up and soon I'll be working at it again.  I have reached the physical boundaries in my sewing room with no more space, and I can't find anything anymore.  It's a dilemma, as I really want to keep everything, but must start downsizing to be able to function at all in the space. 

Oliver plans on helping me sort and organize.  Ha!

Hope spring is in the air where you live, it is here in the north, with longer days already.  Time to plan a spring trip to a quilt event!

Keep quilting, keep feathering, don't let what you've learned fade away.

Diane