I have a new toy.
I saw various versions of the idea at the Festival of Quilts in August, but when I went to knitting and stitching in Harrogate I decided to go for it.
Basically, instead of bothering to mark out the pattern on the fabric before you start quilting, you use a stencil type piece of plastic. There are various systems available. Mine is like a tram track. You drop the feed dog, put the presser foot in the channel, and the foot is guided down your chosen path.
I’ve got basic templates: a straight line with inches and angles marked, a set of circles, and a feather.
Now this was a bit of a risk, because I’ve never been very good at free motion quilting.
But I can do it now.
And yes, I know some of them are a bit wobbly, but I’m happy with my first attempt, especially as I was trying it out on black print, which isn’t the easiest thing to see when you are stitching. The next thing I’m going to do is a flower, which I saw demonstrated with the circle template, but you need to aim for the centre, so I’ll need a paler fabric.
And in case you are wondering why I didn’t do my samples on plainer, paler fabric, it was because I needed to quilt the pieces for a bag I’m making. And as I expected, the quilted patterns don’t show up much, but that isn’t the point. I have had useful practise, and the quilting makes the fabric firmer.
I really like double wedding ring quilts. Particularly the ones made of scraps, so there are lots and lots of fabrics involved. If you look hard at my sampler quilt, there is a double wedding ring block in there. I doubt if I will ever get round to doing more than that. I found it really difficult sorting out the fabrics. I kept thinking “Oh, there is a nice one. I haven’t got that yet.” Then a few moments later I would find I had a duplication.