About a month ago, I took a free-motion quilting class. They taught us how to “lower the feed dogs” on our machines, attach a special presser foot and then begin attempting to quilt our 3 layers (top, backing and batting) together. When I got home, I took photos of the machine quilted patterns on my quilts that are already completed. Now that I am attempting to do a bit of my own machine quilting – I am paying more attention to the computer guided patterns. They are so lovely!

Machine Quilting Patterns – Computer Guided

Me – Free Motion

After the class, it was up to us to practice at home. Learning to free motion quilt is sort of like learning to write.

It is a very messy process.

My samples need a little work before I am ready to machine quilt something that I’ve already spent days, hours and good money on! I did try something fun, I wrote my name in the stitches below. See it?

During the class, I did have a little free-motion fun with some “doodling.” I made a flower garden.

These are really messy, but totally fun to do! I am really enjoying learning to free-motion quilt. The only problem is that now I know what those $7,000 long-arm machines are used for! Before, I just though – gosh – I hope I don’t want one of those someday. However, I think I’ll be able to do plenty of machine quilting on my Molly machine for quite some time yet. I think the only time I would need/want a long-arm machine is for larger quilts like a queen or king. Who knows if I’ll have the patience to do one of those anyway! No need to rush.

One reason I’m enjoying this is because of what I call: the joy of being a beginner. You just have to do it. You don’t have to do it well! There is a lot of freedom in that idea. It brings a sense of play that “adults” don’t allow themselves very often.

Those were all my samples from the Saturday class. Now, I am practicing at home on some smaller projects for the Six Squared Fundraiser, where I am entering a 6 in by 6 in mini-quilt. So – developing this new skill is going to take time. I’ve got plenty of time. I can’t start flower beds until the snow finally melts. So, I’m still stitching away.

Thanks for reading! Sierra Shea