New Machine Quilting

Before I left for my folks' house a few weeks ago, I ordered a couple of books online - Angela Walters' new Free Motion Quilting book, being one of them.

It's fabulous.

If you're looking to drop some dollabills on a quilting-related book, I recommend this one.

I'll go ahead and say for the record that I've pretty much staked my entire free motion quilting portfolio on a half-dozen or so designs:

basic stippling

loop de loop stippling

square stippling

paisleys

bubbles

and straight lines. Do straight lines even count?

Everything else you've seen in my work was probably a pattern I traced onto the quilt.

So I bought this book, looking to beef up my free motion repertoire. I was thrilled that she included her concentric circles pattern in the book, because it's one of my favorites that I've never been able to figure out just by looking at an image of it.

Examples of this pattern at work here, here, and here.

Luckily, Angela gives directions for how to stitch each pattern, line by line, just like the old handwriting charts of yore. Do kids still use those charts? Or is it all touch-typing these days?

Anyways, at her advice, I filled up pages and pages of my Notebook Of Life with this one design, practicing through many episodes of The Daily Show until I finally worked up the gumption to try it on an actual quilt.

I figured that my Joy HST string quilt would be a perfect candidate for this particular design. You see all those stringy seams? They really needed to be stabilized, and this allover design fit the bill perfectly.

My lines aren't perfectly smooth and curvy - there are a few angles and corners where I stopped and started to go check on dinner or change out a bobbin or thought I would smoothly shift my fabric with one hand while I continued quilting with the other (#nosuchluck). But I'm hoping those little inconsistencies won't be so noticeable once it's all quilted.

Overall, I'm in love with this pattern. I can't wait to see how the entire quilt turns out.

I definitely recommend this book - it has clear directions for each desk, solid tips on trying out other new designs,  and it definitely boosted my confidence/gave me the kick in the pants I needed to try a new design for realz on one of my quilts!